Elizabeth S Paul
Biographic Data
| ID | 130825 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elizabeth S Paul |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elizabeth S |
| FAMILY NAME | Paul |
| SIGNATURE | PAUL E S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5884-5709 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 116 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Tackling challenges in the study of animal emotions: A review
The study of animal emotion can be the source of much confusion and lack of clarity. Researchers may talk past each other when discussing their work, and communication with stakeholders can result in misunderstandings about what is actually being studied and what has been found out. Here, we identify some key challenges in studying animal emotion and offer ways forward for tackling them. We begin by considering the uses of, and debates about, ter…
Are Brachycephalic Dogs Really Cute? Evidence from Online Descriptions
Brachycephalic dog breeds have become increasingly popular in recent years, despite showing a high incidence of conformation-related disorders and early mortality. It has been suggested that this popularity might be explained by public perceptions of these short-muzzled dogs as looking particularly infant-like or "cute." Here, the hypothesis that short-muzzled breeds are especially likely to be described as cute was investigated by analyzing the …
Veterinary Students' Beliefs About Animal Sentience: What Role Does Gender Play
Across a 15-year period, annual cohorts of first-year veterinary science students (n = 1,380; 77% female) at a British university completed the Belief in Animal Sentience (BiAS) questionnaire, in which they reported their beliefs about the sentience (capacity to feel) of ten species: dogs, cats, lions, pigs, sheep, rats, rabbits, chickens, bees, and spiders. On the basis of previous findings regarding people's beliefs about animals' capacities fo…
Sociality Motivation and Anthropomorphic Thinking about Pets
Sociality motivation, the need to feel socially connected with others, has been proposed as an important determinant of individual variation in anthropomorphic thinking. Specifically, it has been suggested that people who are socially isolated or disconnected will tend to infer more human-like mental states in animals and other nonhuman agents (computers, robots, metaphysical beings, etc.), than those who have higher levels of contact with other …
Factors Affecting the Human Interpretation of Dog Behavior
Several factors influence how we interpret the behavior of another individual. In the current study, we investigated the effect of level of animal empathy, as well as the level of experience with dogs, on the interpretation of dog behavior. Forty-seven veterinary students participated in the study. Each student filled out a printed questionnaire on their experiences and skills with dogs, and then completed the Animal Empathy Scale. They were show…
Mood and the speed of decisions about anticipated resources and hazards
Empathy with Animals and with Humans: Are They Linked
A sample of 514 adults completed a postal questionnaire measuring both their empathy with humans (using the Mehrabian and Epstein (1972) Questionnaire for the Measurement of Emotional Empathy) and their empathy with non-human animals (using the Animal Empathy Scale, developed for this study). There was a significant, but modest correlation between the two scales (Kendall's tau=0.26, p<0.001), indicating that although the two types of empathy meas…
The Representation of Animals on Children'S Television
The representation of animals on British children's television was investigated by means of content analysis of 364 weekday programs, collected over a two-year period. Animals are a major subject area of children's TV, appearing at a very high rate in fictional and non-fictional programs alike. Two main themes concerning the portrayal of animals emerged. The first was a reinforcement of the notion of a phylogenetic hierarchy in animals' capacity …
Us and Them: Scientists' and Animal Rights Campaigners' Views of the Animal Experimentation Debate
Animal rights campaigners and scientists working with animals completed anonymous questionnaires in which they were asked to report, not only on their own beliefs and ideas about the animal experimentation debate, but also on those they perceived the opposing group to hold. Both groups of participants tended to have a negative and somewhat extreme view of the other. But they did have an accurate grasp of the arguments and defenses commonly offere…
Childhood Pet Keeping and Humane Attitudes in Young Adulthood
A questionnaire survey of 385 UK-based university students was used to investigate whether there was an association between pet keeping in childhood and humane attitudes in young adulthood. Subjects gave detailed, retrospective reports of the pets they had kept during their childhoods, and a variety of attitude scales and open-ended questions were used to measure their current attitudes concerning the welfare of both animals and humans. Higher le…
Why Children Keep Pets: The Influence of Child and Family Characteristics
Two separate but complementary questionnaire surveys were undertaken to assess the relationship between various demographic and family variables and individual variation in levels of childhood pet ownership. The first survey investigated pet ownership levels in a cross-section of families with schoolaged children. In the second, a large sample of university students were invited to report retrospectively on the pets they and their families had ow…
Empathy with Animals and with Humans: Are They Linked
A sample of 514 adults completed a postal questionnaire measuring both their empathy with humans (using the Mehrabian and Epstein (1972) Questionnaire for the Measurement of Emotional Empathy) and their empathy with non-human animals (using the Animal Empathy Scale, developed for this study). There was a significant, but modest correlation between the two scales (Kendall's tau=0.26, p<0.001), indicating that although the two types of empathy meas…
The Representation of Animals on Children'S Television
The representation of animals on British children's television was investigated by means of content analysis of 364 weekday programs, collected over a two-year period. Animals are a major subject area of children's TV, appearing at a very high rate in fictional and non-fictional programs alike. Two main themes concerning the portrayal of animals emerged. The first was a reinforcement of the notion of a phylogenetic hierarchy in animals' capacity …
Why Children Keep Pets: The Influence of Child and Family Characteristics
Two separate but complementary questionnaire surveys were undertaken to assess the relationship between various demographic and family variables and individual variation in levels of childhood pet ownership. The first survey investigated pet ownership levels in a cross-section of families with schoolaged children. In the second, a large sample of university students were invited to report retrospectively on the pets they and their families had ow…
Us and Them: Scientists' and Animal Rights Campaigners' Views of the Animal Experimentation Debate
Animal rights campaigners and scientists working with animals completed anonymous questionnaires in which they were asked to report, not only on their own beliefs and ideas about the animal experimentation debate, but also on those they perceived the opposing group to hold. Both groups of participants tended to have a negative and somewhat extreme view of the other. But they did have an accurate grasp of the arguments and defenses commonly offere…
Sociality Motivation and Anthropomorphic Thinking about Pets
Sociality motivation, the need to feel socially connected with others, has been proposed as an important determinant of individual variation in anthropomorphic thinking. Specifically, it has been suggested that people who are socially isolated or disconnected will tend to infer more human-like mental states in animals and other nonhuman agents (computers, robots, metaphysical beings, etc.), than those who have higher levels of contact with other …
Factors Affecting the Human Interpretation of Dog Behavior
Several factors influence how we interpret the behavior of another individual. In the current study, we investigated the effect of level of animal empathy, as well as the level of experience with dogs, on the interpretation of dog behavior. Forty-seven veterinary students participated in the study. Each student filled out a printed questionnaire on their experiences and skills with dogs, and then completed the Animal Empathy Scale. They were show…
Veterinary Students' Beliefs About Animal Sentience: What Role Does Gender Play
Across a 15-year period, annual cohorts of first-year veterinary science students (n = 1,380; 77% female) at a British university completed the Belief in Animal Sentience (BiAS) questionnaire, in which they reported their beliefs about the sentience (capacity to feel) of ten species: dogs, cats, lions, pigs, sheep, rats, rabbits, chickens, bees, and spiders. On the basis of previous findings regarding people's beliefs about animals' capacities fo…
Why Children Keep Pets: The Influence of Child and Family Characteristics
Two separate but complementary questionnaire surveys were undertaken to assess the relationship between various demographic and family variables and individual variation in levels of childhood pet ownership. The first survey investigated pet ownership levels in a cross-section of families with schoolaged children. In the second, a large sample of university students were invited to report retrospectively on the pets they and their families had ow…
Childhood Pet Keeping and Humane Attitudes in Young Adulthood
A questionnaire survey of 385 UK-based university students was used to investigate whether there was an association between pet keeping in childhood and humane attitudes in young adulthood. Subjects gave detailed, retrospective reports of the pets they had kept during their childhoods, and a variety of attitude scales and open-ended questions were used to measure their current attitudes concerning the welfare of both animals and humans. Higher le…
Us and Them: Scientists' and Animal Rights Campaigners' Views of the Animal Experimentation Debate
Animal rights campaigners and scientists working with animals completed anonymous questionnaires in which they were asked to report, not only on their own beliefs and ideas about the animal experimentation debate, but also on those they perceived the opposing group to hold. Both groups of participants tended to have a negative and somewhat extreme view of the other. But they did have an accurate grasp of the arguments and defenses commonly offere…
The Representation of Animals on Children'S Television
The representation of animals on British children's television was investigated by means of content analysis of 364 weekday programs, collected over a two-year period. Animals are a major subject area of children's TV, appearing at a very high rate in fictional and non-fictional programs alike. Two main themes concerning the portrayal of animals emerged. The first was a reinforcement of the notion of a phylogenetic hierarchy in animals' capacity …
Empathy with Animals and with Humans: Are They Linked
A sample of 514 adults completed a postal questionnaire measuring both their empathy with humans (using the Mehrabian and Epstein (1972) Questionnaire for the Measurement of Emotional Empathy) and their empathy with non-human animals (using the Animal Empathy Scale, developed for this study). There was a significant, but modest correlation between the two scales (Kendall's tau=0.26, p<0.001), indicating that although the two types of empathy meas…
Mood and the speed of decisions about anticipated resources and hazards
Sociality Motivation and Anthropomorphic Thinking about Pets
Sociality motivation, the need to feel socially connected with others, has been proposed as an important determinant of individual variation in anthropomorphic thinking. Specifically, it has been suggested that people who are socially isolated or disconnected will tend to infer more human-like mental states in animals and other nonhuman agents (computers, robots, metaphysical beings, etc.), than those who have higher levels of contact with other …
Factors Affecting the Human Interpretation of Dog Behavior
Several factors influence how we interpret the behavior of another individual. In the current study, we investigated the effect of level of animal empathy, as well as the level of experience with dogs, on the interpretation of dog behavior. Forty-seven veterinary students participated in the study. Each student filled out a printed questionnaire on their experiences and skills with dogs, and then completed the Animal Empathy Scale. They were show…
Veterinary Students' Beliefs About Animal Sentience: What Role Does Gender Play
Across a 15-year period, annual cohorts of first-year veterinary science students (n = 1,380; 77% female) at a British university completed the Belief in Animal Sentience (BiAS) questionnaire, in which they reported their beliefs about the sentience (capacity to feel) of ten species: dogs, cats, lions, pigs, sheep, rats, rabbits, chickens, bees, and spiders. On the basis of previous findings regarding people's beliefs about animals' capacities fo…
Are Brachycephalic Dogs Really Cute? Evidence from Online Descriptions
Brachycephalic dog breeds have become increasingly popular in recent years, despite showing a high incidence of conformation-related disorders and early mortality. It has been suggested that this popularity might be explained by public perceptions of these short-muzzled dogs as looking particularly infant-like or "cute." Here, the hypothesis that short-muzzled breeds are especially likely to be described as cute was investigated by analyzing the …
Tackling challenges in the study of animal emotions: A review
The study of animal emotion can be the source of much confusion and lack of clarity. Researchers may talk past each other when discussing their work, and communication with stakeholders can result in misunderstandings about what is actually being studied and what has been found out. Here, we identify some key challenges in studying animal emotion and offer ways forward for tackling them. We begin by considering the uses of, and debates about, ter…
Psychology (11 works) · Human-Animal Interaction Studies (8 works) · Biology (7 works) · Animal welfare (6 works) · Developmental psychology (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Animal and Plant Science Education (5 works) · Animal-assisted therapy (5 works) · HUBzero (5 works) · Pet therapy (5 works)