How Should We Treat Farmed Animals? Adolescents Are More Speciesist Than Adults
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6451867 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Luke Mcguire (0000-0001-8178-7922, Department of Psychology University of Exeter Exeter UK, corresponding author), Emma Fry (Department of Psychology University of Exeter Exeter UK), Nadira S Faber (0000-0001-9373-9549, Department of Psychology University of Bremen Bremen Germany) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1467-9507 • E-ISSN: 0961-205X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/sode.12802 |
| OpenAlex | W4410096408 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 37 |
Adults engage in psychological processes (including species‐based categorisation and post‐hoc reasoning) that result in ascribing high moral value to some animals while eating others. Do adolescents engage in similar processes? We compared adolescents’ ( n = 89, M age = 13.54) and adults’ ( n = 113, M age = 43.73) views on four measurements. Regarding moral judgements, we found that adolescents were (a) more speciesist than adults (i.e., believed moral worth was determined by species membership) and (b) reported that farmed animals ought to be treated less well than adults did. There were (c) no differences in how morally justified adults and adolescents found eating meat. Finally, we found that (d) adolescents were less likely than adults to report that in society, farmed animals are categorised as food rather than pets. Overall, this suggests that adolescents base their view on the treatment an individual deserves more on the species it belongs to than adults do, which may serve as a first attempt to make sense of the differential treatment different animals are subjected to in society
Developmental psychology · Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Psychology
Political attitudes in adolescence and emerging adulthood
G*Power 3
The development of social knowledge
Humans first
The Development of Speciesism
Children Who Choose Not to Eat Meat
Age‐related differences in reasoning about the acceptability of eating animals
Adolescents' Judgments of Doubly Deviant Peers
When Is It Okay to Exclude a Member of the Ingroup? Children's and Adolescents’ Social Reasoning
Green frontiers
An Investigation into the Association between the Witnessing of Animal Abuse and Adolescents' Behavior toward Animals
Not appropriate dinner table conversation? Talking to children about meat production
Rationalizing meat consumption. The 4Ns
The effect of categorization as food on the perceived moral standing of animals
Meat-related cognitive dissonance
The role of meat consumption in the denial of moral status and mind to meat animals
Longitudinal effects of human supremacy beliefs and vegetarianism threat on moral exclusion (vs. inclusion) of animals
The development of intergroup resource allocation
How groups react to disloyalty in the context of intergroup competition
The moral standing of animals
Resolving the Meat-Paradox
Learning to Dislike Your Opponents
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |