Tag: Anthropomorphism

Sam Gosling: Animal personality

Post author By Human Animal Science
Post date July 1, 2014
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Animal personality

Sam Gosling is a psychologist based at the University of Texas at Austin in the USA.

His research interests include social perception, new methods of data collection online and cross-species work, where he examines how animals can inform theories of personality and social psychology.

We talked with Sam about how science can help us measure animal personality traits (non-human) across a number of species, including hyenas, dogs, and even invertebrates, like squid.

Podcast

Publications

Sam Gosling discusses animal personalities — Sam Gosling

Gosling, S. D., & John, O. P. (1999). Personality dimensions in nonhuman animals a cross-species review. Current Directions in Psychological Science,8(3), 69-75.

Gosling, S. D. (2001). From mice to men: what can we learn about personality from animal research?. Psychological bulletin, 127(1), 45.

Gosling, S. D., & Vazire, S. (2002). Are we barking up the right tree? Evaluating a comparative approach to personality. Journal of Research in Personality,36(6), 607-614.

Gosling, S. D. (2008). Personality in Non‐human Animals. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(2), 985-1001.

Sinn, D. L., Gosling, S. D., & Hilliard, S. (2010). Personality and performance in military working dogs: Reliability and predictive validity of behavioral tests. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 127(1), 51-65.

Links

Gosling Lab at the University of Texas, Austin

Top image via Flickr/malingering

Psychology

Hal Herzog: animals, culture & us

Post author By Human Animal Science
Post date March 25, 2014
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Hal Herzog animals culture and us

Hal Herzog is recognised as one of the world’s leading anthrozoology experts, having researched human-animal relations for over two decades.

He is particularly interested in how people negotiate real-world ethical dilemmas, and has studied animal activists, cockfighters, animal researchers and circus animal trainers.

A professor of psychology at Western Carolina University, Hal blogs at Psychology Today and his work has been widely published in journals and books.

It was our absolute pleasure to talk with Hal about some of the themes from his book, Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: why it’s so hard to think straight about animals.

Amongst many tangents, we discuss why people keep pets, charismatic mega-fauna and the variation in the way humans relate to animals across cultures.

Podcast

Publications

Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: why it’s so hard to think straight about animals – Amazon Australia, Amazon US.

Knight, S., & Herzog, H. (2009). All creatures great and small: New perspectives on psychology and human–animal interactions. Journal of Social Issues, 65(3), 451-461.

Herzog, H. A. (2007) Gender differences in human-animal interactions: A review. Anthrozoos. 20:17-21.

Other publications via WCU website

Links

Western Carolina University Profile

Twitter: @herzoghal

Psychology Today Blog: Animals and Us

Anthropology Pets Psychology Research

Anthropomorphism: are we guilty?

Post author By Human Animal Science
Post date December 24, 2013
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anthropomorphism in dogs

Are we guilty of anthropomorphism in dogs? As dog owners it’s very easy to humanise our pets.

Julie Hecht, MSc, is a researcher and science writer fascinated not just by animal behaviour and welfare, but how we think about animals and the consequences of those thoughts.

Take anthropomorphism (attributing human characteristics to animals or objects) as a key example.

In this episode of Human Animal Science we explore what actually happens when we think that dog is guilty; or that cat is grumpy.

We discuss why we anthropomorphise and how it impacts on the animals.

Podcast

What is anthropomorphism in dogs?

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human entities.

In dogs, it can manifest as attributing emotions such as love, loyalty, and happiness to dogs, or expecting dogs to understand and communicate with us in ways that they do not. At least not in the same ways we do.