Presented by Jessica Bell, M.A., Michigan State University
“Statistically significant increases in the frequency, depth and emotion of Kinship and Sentience/Individuality responses indicate that the animal portraits encouraged participants to conceptualize animals as conscious beings with emotional and mental states similar to humans. Encouraging students to view animals as sentient beings is a key goal of many humane and environmental education programs because it is often the prerequisite for perceiving animals as capable of suffering and worthy of protection. This study offers convincing evidence that certain approaches to animal portraiture can increase acknowledgement of animal sentience and individuality and thus play an important role in humane and environmental education.”
