Animals bring a sense of comfort to many of us – dogs, for examples, are seen as pets.
However, as humans, there is a tendency to categorise which ones are loved and which ones are to be eaten and a new study might have the answer why.
Researchers in Singapore looked at people’s perceptions of animals and found that those which were killed for food are viewed as less sentient and “devoid of rights”.
The study, which looked at 16 animals based on warmth and competence and included animals such as sharks, alligators, pigs, dogs, octopuses, rabbits, cows and orangutans.
The results were split into four categories: love, save, indifferent, and dislike, based on people’s feelings towards the species.
Vegetarians and animal activists were also shown to hold more of an “absolutist” belief, where things are either right or wrong, regardless of the context.
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It was also revealed that many participants of the study assign different values to animals in order to justify their like or dislike towards them.
Lead author Dr Paul Patinadan, a graduate of James Cook University, Australia and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said: “Understanding the place of our own moral judgments amongst nonhuman animals might help to finally define the nature of human interaction with the beings that share our world with us.”
