Differences and Similarities in Humans' Perceptions of the Thinking and Feeling of a Dog and a Boy

Jeffrey Lee Rasmussen and D. W. Rajecki


College students' perceptions of companion dog mentality were systematically compared with perceptions of human child mentality. Independent groups of respondents rated capacities of a dog or a boy on 12 categories of thinking and 30 items of remorseful feelings for misbehavior. The boy received superior ratings for so-called "complex" (but not "simple") thinking categories and "upper level" (but not "lower level") remorse items. Even so, there were strong associations between dog and boy means across all 12 thinking categories (r = .74) and all 30 remorse items (r = .72). Thus elements of thinking and feeling that were judged likely (or not) for the boy were also relatively likely (or not) for the dog. These several comparisons were taken to indicate that whereas the dog and boy were perceived by subjects as having mentalities that were quantitatively different, those respective mentalities were nevertheless viewed as qualitatively similar. Findings were discussed in terms of social-cognition theories of anthropomorphism

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Attitudes toward Animals: Species Ratings

Janis Wiley Driscoll


A questionnaire was used to assess people's attitudes toward 33 species of animals on six dimensions (useful-useless, smart-stupid, responsive-unresponsive, lovable-unlovable, safe-dangerous, and important-unimportant). A cluster analysis resulted in five groups of animals with similar ratings on these dimensions. Respondents were also asked about their attitudes toward hunting, fishing, and medical, scientific and product-testing research using animals.

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The Social Construction of Orangutans: An Ecotourist Experience

Constance L. Russell


Applying social construction theory to the study of other animals, this article reports research conducted on ecotourist constructions of orangutans. Two "stories" dominated: Orangutan as Child and Orangutan as Pristine. The cultural and historical specificity of these constructs as well as their implications for conservation are discussed.

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Children, Animals, and Leisure Settings

Barbara Ann Birney


Forty-eight children were interviewed on topics including the behavior of wild and captive animals. Half of the children toured a series of North American exhibits at a natural history museum and half toured a comparable series of exhibits at a zoo. Children demonstrated a high degree of recall about their visits and retained specific memories of the animals that interested them. Zoo children's remarks contained more references to behavior and were more positive in their assessment of what animals could do. Museum children made more references to environmental elements and issues such as human impact.
 

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