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Attachments between non-human animals of different species are surprisingly common in situations involving human agency (e.g., homes, zoos, and wildlife parks). However, cross-species animal friendships analogous to pet-keeping by humans are at least rare and possibly non-existent in nature. Why has pet-keeping evolved only in Homo sapiens? I review theories that explain pet-keeping either as an adaptation or an evolutionary by-product. I suggest that these explanations cannot account for the wide variation in the distribution and forms of pet-keeping across human societies and over historical time. Using fluctuations in the popularity of dog breeds in the United States, I show how shifts in choices of pets follow the rapid changes in preferences that characterize fashion cycles. I argue that while humans possess some innate traits that facilitate attachment to members of other species (e.g., parental urges, attraction to creatures with infantile features), pet-keeping is largely a product of social learning and imitation-based cultural evolution.

Because of extensive media coverage, it is now widely believed that pets enhance their owners’ health, sense of psychological well-being, and longevity. But while some researchers have reported that positive effects accrue from interacting with animals, others have found that the health and happiness of pet owners is no better, and in some cases worse, than that of non–pet owners. I discuss some reasons why studies of the effects of pets on people have produced conflicting results, and I argue that the existence of a generalized “pet effect” on human mental and physical health is at present not a fact but an unsubstantiated hypothesis.

Why do some people and not others become involved in social movements? We examined the relationships between a moral emotion—disgust—and animal activism, attitudes toward animal welfare, and consumption of meat. Participants were recruited through two social networking websites and included animal activists, promoters of animal use, and participants not involved in animal-related causes. They took an online survey which included measures of sensitivity to visceral disgust, attitudes toward animal welfare, and frequency of meat eating. Animal activists were more sensitive to visceral disgust than were promoters of animal use or nonaligned participants. Disgust sensitivity was positively correlated with attitudes toward animal welfare but not with meat consumption. The relationship between animal activism and vegetarianism was complex; nearly half of animal activists ate meat, and half of the vegetarians did not consider themselves to be animal activists. We argue that conflicts over the moral status of animals reflect fundamental differences in moral intuitions.

Almost by definition, “popular culture” reflects the effects of most people imitating those around them. At the same time, trends and fashions are constantly changing, with future outcomes potentially irrational and nearly impossible to predict. A simple null model, which captures these seemingly conflicting tendencies of conformity and change, involves the random copying of cultural variants between individuals, with occasional innovation. Here, we show that the random-copying model predicts a continual flux of initially obscure new ideas (analogous to mutations) becoming highly popular by chance alone, such that the turnover rate on a list of most popular variants depends on the list size and the amount of innovation but not on population size. We also present evidence for remarkably regular turnover on “pop charts”—including the most popular music, first names, and dog breeds in 20th-century United States—which fits this expectation. By predicting parametric effects on the turnover of popular fashion, the random-copying model provides an additional means of characterizing collective copying behavior in culture evolution.

We evaluated the reliability of peer review ratings of 218 proposals that were submitted for presentation at the 2004 meeting of the International Association of Human–Animal Interaction Organizations (IAHAIO). Each proposal was evaluated on four dimensions by different sets of three raters who were blind to the identity of the authors. Single measure intraclass correlations between the evaluations of raters indicated that the reliabilities of judgments were poor for abstracts submitted as research presentations and as descriptions of applied human–animal programs, and fair for abstracts submitted as critical reviews. Reliability of the selection system was considerably improved by averaging the scores of the three raters and using the combined scores to make accept/reject decisions. We suggest modifications to the review process that may enhance the reliability of the selection process for proposals submitted for meetings and for journal submissions in anthrozoology.

Much of the research on attitudes toward non-human species has been conducted with non-representative samples. Largely ignored in the literature on human/animal interactions are surveys conducted by commercial polling organizations using large probability samples of Americans. Many of these surveys contain information relevant to attitudes about animals and animal welfare issues. This information is available to researchers electronically at little or no cost through organizations such as the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research and the National Opinion Research Center.

We examined the relationship between personal moral philosophy, gender, and judgments of the effectiveness of materials designed by advocacy groups to sway public opinion about biomedical research using nonhuman animals. Twenty-six male and 74 female undergraduates evaluated 16 advertisements or brochures developed by groups which either supported or opposed animal research. The subjects also completed the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) and were offered the opportunity to sign postcards urging their congressperson to either support or eliminate federal funding of animal research. Females perceived the anti-animal research materials to be more effective than did the males, a difference that was not found in the case of the pro-animal research materials. The idealism dimension of the EPQ and gender accounted for a significant portion of the variation in judgments of the effectiveness of the anti-animal research materials but not the pro-animal research materials. The pattern of postcard signing was predicted by the subjects' evaluations of the stimulus materials but not gender or the EPQ variables.

1 used a qualitative research approach to investigate psychological aspects of involvement in the animal rights movement. Interviews were conducted with 23 rank-and-file activists, focusing on cognitive and emotional aspects of involvement with the movement, concomitant lifestyle changes, effects on interpersonal relations, and the happiness and well-being of the participants. Three main themes emerged from these interviews. First, there was a surprising degree of diversity in attitudes and beliavior of the activists. Second, animal rights activism usually entailed major changes in lifestyle: almost all interviewees strove to achieve consistency between their ideals and their actions. Third, there were several parallel.^ between an involvement with the animal rights movement and religious conversion. The potential for increased communication between the animal protection and scientific communities is discussed. The animal rights movement has been spectacularly successful at drawing public attention to the ethical issues involved in our relationships with other species. Animal protection organizations have proliferated in number, membership, and influence since the publication of Peter Singer's book .Animal Liber

In two studies, we used the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) to investigate the relationship between individual differences in moral philosophy, involvement in the animal rights movement, and attitudes toward the treatment of animals. In the first, 600 animal rights activists attending a national demonstration and 266 nonactivist college students were given the EPQ. Analysis of the returns from 157 activists and 198 students indicated that the activists were more likely than the students to hold an "absolutist" moral orientation (high idealism, low relativism). In the second study, 169 students were given the EPQ with a scale designed to measure attitudes toward the treatment of animals. Multiple regression showed that gender and the EPQ dimension of idealism were related to attitudes toward animal use.

To examine the relationship among gender, sex role orientation, and attitudes toward the treatment of animals, 144 male and 222 female college students were administered the Bem Sex Role Inventory, a Likert-scale questionnaire designed to assess attitudes toward animal welfare issues, and a measure of perceived comfort touching animals of a variety of species. There were significant gender differences on all of the animal-related measures with the exception of self-reported comfort touching positively perceived animals. Gender and the expressive (feminine) dimension of sex role orientation accounted for a significant proportion of the variation in attitudes toward animal welfare issues and comfort with other species. Correlations between the masculine and feminine dimensions of sex role orientation were related in opposite directions on all animal attitude measures.

People who work in biomedical and behavioral research settings sometimes form strong relationships with individual laboratory animals. Ethnographic studies indicate that it is common for these individuals to transform some animals from experimental subject to pet. Although theories of ethics that emphasize impartiality and justice have little to say about the moral implications of human-research animal bonds, caring-based ethical systems acknowledge the moral consequences and resulting psychological burdens of these relationships. Typically, albeit not always, animal care staff are more likely than researchers to experience the moral ambivalence associated with human-laboratory animal bonds. These bonds can result in conflict between technicians and investigators. Several ways that research institutions can help individuals cope with the ethical consequences of relationships with research animals include supporting the development of human-animal relationships in laboratories, giving animal care personnel an ethical voice through involvement in the institutional animal care and use committee decision process, publicly acknowledging the emotional and moral costs of human-laboratory animal relationships, and educating animal care staff about the purpose and possible benefits of research projects.

One hundred sixty subjects acted as members of a hypothetical Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and evaluated five proposals in which animals were to be used for research or educational purposes. They were asked to approve or reject the proposals and to indicate what factors were important in reaching their ethical decisions. Gender and differences in personal moral philosophy were related to approval decisions. The reasons given for the decisions fell into three main categories: metacognitive statements, factors related to the animal, and factors related to the design of the experiment.

(1997). Human Clothing and Dog Behavior: An Unproven Hypothesis. Anthrozoos: Vol. 10, No. 2-3, pp. 82-83.

Few subjects covered in psychology courses arouse as much intense feeling as the issue of homosexuality. Students in three different undergraduate courses were asked to submit their questions about homosexuality prior to a panel discussion presented by representatives of a local gay rights organization. A total of 280 questions were collected. They fell into 13 categories, shedding light on the primary questions and concerns students have about this important issue.

Interviews were conducted with 24 graduating veterinary students to examine (a) changes in their attitudes toward animals; (b) the types of experiences and procedures that they found personally distressing; (c) their perceptions of the most important ethical issues that they will face in private practice; and (d) their responses to euthanizing animals. Students' responses differed considerably. For example, about half of the students claimed that they were not affected by euthanasia, but another 25% still were struggling with this aspect of their professional role. Rationalization was a common mechanism by which the students attempted to deal with stressful experiences. It is argued that the moral dilemmas faced by veterinary students mirror the ethical ambiguities inherent in human-animal relationships.

It would be difficult to overestimate the significance of animals in the social and psychological life of our species. Images of animals are everywhere: in our language, religions, dreams, television programs, and folklore. The feelings that we exhibit toward our fellow creatures are intense, complex, and paradoxical. Responses to animals range from the disgust we feel when confronted with a bloated tick to the reverence for animals as deities in so-called primitive cultures; from the love of a child for a pet bunny to the paralyzing fear of phobic experiences when confronted by a harmless spider.In recent years there has been increasing interest in human-animal relationships by investigators from a variety of disciplines. We will not attempt a synthesis of the growing literature on attitudes toward animals, but will follow a different course. For the past decade we have been exploring the diversity and origins of human-animal relationships, and our research has taken us into some rather odd place...

Anthrozoos II:2 carried on pages 98 through 117 an article based on ethnographic research conducted in animal-research laboratories. The paper argued that sacrifice is an ambivalent concept in the culture of animal experimentation, requiring both objectification of and identification with the laboratory animal. The author argued that, because of this ambivalence, laboratory animals are not accorded a single, uniform, and unchanging status but are seen simultaneously as objects and pets. The animals are objectified by incorporation into the protocol, by isolation, by transformation into commodities, and by situational definition. At the same time, laboratory workers develop relationships with the animals that resemble those between owners and pets. These relationships can be divided into four categories: enshrined pets, epitomized by pictures, cartoons, and objects of animals in the laboratory; liberated pets, epitomized by animals removed from the laboratory before experimentation; saved pets, epitomized ...

Immobility responses were observed in 33 of 86 cockfights. The responses were topographically similar to restraint-induced tonic immobility (“animal hypnosis”). The responses were proportionately more common in longer fights, indicating that fatigue and exhaustion may increase the probability of occurrence. Film analysis showed that immobile animals tended to be attacked less frequently than nonimmobile animals, suggesting a possible function for the behavior. These observations show that immobility may function in intra-as well as interspecific encounters. A possible evolutionary relationship between submissive postures and TI is discussed, as well as the hypothesis that exhaustion resulting from encounters with other animals was important in the evolution of TI. Data on fight length and survivorship also are presented.