TY - JOUR
KW - Animal-testing
KW - Categorization
KW - Denial of mind
KW - Human-animal relations
AU - Kevin Vezirian
AU - Laurent Bègue
AU - Brock Bastian
AB - Despite caring for animals, most people use products tested on lab-animals daily, and rarely consider the implications of their choices for animal testing. We experimentally examined across four preregistered and high-powered online studies (total N = 3405) whether categorizing animals as being lab-subjects, in a context where people are also reminded of the implications of their own consumer choices, could lead to their mind denial. Findings confirmed that participants consistently denied mind to animals used for product testing compared to those same animals presented outside of this context. Manipulating the perceived suffering experienced by laboratory animals and the responsibility of individuals, however, did not affect the extent of mind denial. Our findings suggest, consistent with previous work, that categorizing animals as ‘furry test-tubes’ changes how we perceive them, in order to rationalize their use for testing the products we consume on a daily basis.
BT - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
DA - 2024-09
DO - 10.1016/j.jesp.2024.104629
N2 - Despite caring for animals, most people use products tested on lab-animals daily, and rarely consider the implications of their choices for animal testing. We experimentally examined across four preregistered and high-powered online studies (total N = 3405) whether categorizing animals as being lab-subjects, in a context where people are also reminded of the implications of their own consumer choices, could lead to their mind denial. Findings confirmed that participants consistently denied mind to animals used for product testing compared to those same animals presented outside of this context. Manipulating the perceived suffering experienced by laboratory animals and the responsibility of individuals, however, did not affect the extent of mind denial. Our findings suggest, consistent with previous work, that categorizing animals as ‘furry test-tubes’ changes how we perceive them, in order to rationalize their use for testing the products we consume on a daily basis.
PY - 2024
EP - 104629
ST - Mindless furry test-tubes
T2 - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
TI - Mindless furry test-tubes: Categorizing animals as lab-subjects leads to their mind denial
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103124000416
VL - 114
Y2 - 2024-08-13
SN - 0022-1031
ER -