Tue, Apr 19, 2022 page14

• Farm animals and humans should be treated the same, children say 兒童認為養殖場動物與人類應受平等對待

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  Children think farm animals deserve to be treated as well as human beings but lose this belief in adolescence, a groundbreaking study has found.

  Researchers from the universities of Exeter and Oxford asked a group of British children aged nine to 11, young adults aged 18 to 21 and older men and women about their attitudes to different sorts of animals.

  In general, the children said farm animals and human beings should be treated the same and found eating animals less morally acceptable than both sets of adults. The findings suggest that “speciesism” — a moral hierarchy that gives different value to different animals — is learned during adolescence, according to the study.

  

  A Palestinian boy rides his bicycle past chickens at a private poultry farm in the West Bank village of Bani Naim, on Feb. 16. 約旦河西岸村莊巴尼納伊姆一家私人家禽養殖場中，一名巴勒斯坦男孩騎腳踏車經過一群雞。攝於二月十六日。

  Photo: AFP 照片：法新社

  “Humans’ relationship with animals is full of ethical double standards,” said the lead author, Luke McGuire, a lecturer at the University of Exeter who specializes in social and moral development. “Some animals are beloved household companions, while others are kept in factory farms for economic benefit. Judgments seem to largely depend on the species of the animal in question: dogs are our friends, pigs are food.”

  The report says an important aspect of the human mind is “moral acrobatics”: people can hold ethical values that contradict each other and employ moral double standards. But the origins of moral acrobatics relating to animals is poorly understood and the researchers say this new study provides some of the first evidence examining the differences in how children and adults think about animal treatment.

  Among other tasks, participants in the study were presented with pictures including a farm animal and companion animals and asked to categorize them as “food”, “pet” or “object”. They were asked how animals were treated, and how they should be treated.

  

  Young pigs feed in a pen at a hog farm in Ryan, Iowa, US, on May 18, 2019. 小豬在養豬場圍欄中進食。二○一九年五月十八日攝於美國愛荷華州瑞恩市。

  Photo: Reuters 照片：路透

  Children did not judge all animals to be equal. They concluded, in fact, that dogs ought to be treated better than pigs — but also that pigs ought not to be treated differently from humans.

  The two sets of adult groups said pigs ought to be treated less well than dogs, while humans and dogs ought to be treated the same.

  McGuire said the study suggests that while children think farm animals and humans ought to be treated equally well, by adulthood people believe that companion animals and humans ought to be treated better. He said children rated eating animals as significantly less permissible than young adults and adults did.

  The paper, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, is titled “The development of speciesism: age-related differences in the moral view of animals.”

  (The Guardian)

  一項開創性的研究發現，兒童認為我們應像對待人類一樣來好好對待養殖場的動物，但青少年時期以後卻不再這麼認為。

  艾希特大學及牛津大學的研究人員調查了一組九到十一歲的英國兒童、十八到二十一歲的年輕人，以及老年男性與女性，詢問他們對各種動物的態度。

  總體而言，兒童表示養殖場動物與人類應受同等對待，且與其他兩組相比，兒童更覺得吃動物在道德上無法接受。研究結果顯示，「物種歧視」──賦予不同動物不同價值的一種道德階級制度──是在青少年時期習得的。

  「人類與動物的關係充滿了道德雙重標準」，該研究主要作者、專研社會與道德發展的艾希特大學講師路克‧麥奎爾表示。「有些動物是家中受寵愛的朋友，而別的動物則是為了經濟利益而飼養在工廠化的農場中。判斷似乎大多取決於動物的種類：狗是我們的朋友，豬是食物」。

  該報告稱，人類思想的一個重要面向是「道德技巧」：人可以有相互矛盾的道德價值觀，並採取雙重道德標準。但與動物相關的道德技巧，我們對其源起知之甚少；研究人員表示，這項新研究檢驗了兒童與成人在對待動物上的觀念差異，提供了一些初步證據。

  問卷其他題目還包括請受試者看圖片，其中有養殖場動物及伴侶動物，並令其將這些動物歸類為「食物」、「寵物」或「物件」。還問受試者對待動物的方式，以及該如何對待這些動物。

  兒童並不認為所有動物都是平等的。他們得出的結論其實是，狗應該得到比豬更好的待遇──但豬所受的待遇不應與人類有別。

  兩個成人組則表示，豬的待遇應次於狗，而人與狗應受同等待遇。

  麥奎爾說，這項研究顯示，雖然兒童認為養殖場動物與人類應受同等對待，但成年後則認為伴侶動物與人類應受較好的待遇。他表示，與年輕人及成年人相比，兒童明顯較不能容忍吃動物。

  該論文發表在《社會心理與人格科學》期刊上，標題為「物種歧視的發展：動物道德觀之年齡差異」。

  （台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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