, convincingly challenges the assumption that morally valuing animal lives spawns from a more basic moral value for human lives.This research presented several hundred child and adult participants with a series of tragic vignettes involving shipwrecks. The participants were told that two ships were sinking and that passengers could be saved from only one of these ships. In each case, the passengers of one boat were humans, while the passengers of the other boat were either dogs or pigs.
Elementary-school-aged children valued dogs nearly as much as humans––and only 57 percent felt confident that they would save a single human rather than a single pig. This sharply contrasted with adult participants, who overwhelmingly indicated that they would save a human over an animal. These decisions were modulated by the number of passengers on each ship. But even when there was only one human on one ship and 100 animals on the other, the majority of adults indicated that they would save the human. Conversely, the majority of elementary schoolers indicated that they would save the animals.
Overall, this research confirms that most people prioritize the lives of humans when they are presented with dilemmas in which either humans or animals must die––but, intriguingly, the research also demonstrates that some people prioritize the lives of animals. Furthermore, children are much more likely than adults to prioritize dogs and pigs over humans. These findings, therefore, cast doubt on the idea that the moral value of animals is necessarily a subsidiary of the moral value of humans.
When you see how humans act it’s not surprising.
A child possesses more empathy & compassion than most adults. The harshness of the world and life makes adults become more cynical. If you’re dealing w an adult w a psychopathy, forgettaboutit, they’ll kick the darn animal or view it as an object.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: WebMD - 🏆 709. / 51 Read more »
Source: MSNBC - 🏆 469. / 51 Read more »