Abstract

Humans tend to rely on anthropic thinking when it comes to interacting with animals. This thinking includes anthropomorphism (i.e. human similarity applied to nonhumans) and anthropocentrism (i.e. preference for or superiority of humans over nonhumans), and these cognitive biases can have repercussions on initiatives such as conservation. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of this framework by examining the potential correlation between people’s behavior towards animals and their anthropic thinking. We measured participants’ reactions to unexpected encounters with everyday organisms that were categorized into 5 different groups: ambiguous (neither positive or negative), pests (organisms related to infestations), nuisance (organisms that are an inconvenience), fears (organisms that are common phobias), or harmful (organism that sting or bite). We predicted that there would be a positive relationship between anthropocentrism and aggressive behavior and the opposite for anthropomorphism. Additionally, we predicted that organisms from more ‘negative’ groups would be associated with higher levels of anthropocentrism and aggressive behavior. Results indicated that there was no significant correlation between behavior and anthropic thinking. However, analysis of supplementary measures indicated that empathy was significantly correlated with both behavior (r= 0.20, p < 0.05) and anthropomorphism (r= -0.30, p= <0.001). More negatively viewed animal groups were indeed treated more aggressively, with the harmful category having the highest level of anthropocentrism and aggression. The findings help highlight the multi-faceted nature of human perception, which in turn could help better equip conservation initiatives aimed at protecting specific species.