Categories
Philosophy Psychology

Disgusting Animals: what underlies the ‘Eeeww’ factor?

Do slugs disgust you?

How about dog poo, or road kill?

Tyler (T.J.) Kasperbauer gained his PhD in Philosophy from Texas A&M University where he wrote a dissertation on moral psychology and animal ethics.

He is currently completing post-doctoral research at the University of Copenhagen, working with the well-known Peter Sandøe.

T.J.’s main areas of research are applied animal and environmental ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy of psychology.

In this episode, we explore his interesting research into the area of disgusting animals and their traits, why they disgust us, why they should, and what it means for people’s relationships with them.

Podcasts

Publications

T.J.Kasperbauer - Why do animals disgust us / disgusting animals
T.J.Kasperbauer

Kasperbauer, T. J. (2015). Animals as disgust elicitorsBiology & Philosophy,30(2), 167-185.

Kasperbauer, T. J. (2014). Rejecting Empathy for Animal EthicsEthical Theory and Moral Practice, 1-17.

Kasperbauer, T.J. (2014). Perceiving Nonhumans: Human Moral Psychology and Animal Ethics. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A & M University.

Links

T.J. Kasperbauer personal website

T.J. on Twitter

Categories
Psychology

Hal Herzog: animals, culture & 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 Issues65(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