Children universally believe animals experience emotions and feelings but are reluctant to say they have human-like thoughts, which can influence how we treat other species throughout life, according to a new study. Forrest Fellow Dr. Karri Neldner, from The University of Western Australia’s School of Psychological Science, was lead author of the study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
An international team of researchers surveyed 1,025 children aged 4 to 17 years of age and 190 adults from 33 urban and rural communities across 15 countries to ask whether animals had thoughts or feelings and whether those thoughts or feelings were human-like. The question had been posed to adults in several countries before but never asked of children and adolescents from a diverse set of cultures.
“Children and adolescents from a diverse range of cultures were all willing to grant animals the ability of having thoughts and feelings,” Dr. Neldner said. “However, children and adults consistently denied that animals had human-like thoughts, from those living in small-scale fisher–farmer communities, to those living in the concrete jungles of urban megacities.”
Analysis also found that the universal tendency to emphasize differences in human and animal thought rather than similarities began at an early age and continued across the lifespan.
“There was, however, significant cultural variation in the tendency for both children and adults to assign feelings to animals, which suggests cultural belief and lived experience shape our understanding of animal capacities,” Dr. Neldner said. “This provides insight into the cultural and developmental origins of our beliefs about who we are as a species and our perceived relationship with the rest of the animal kingdom.”
The findings have implications for human-animal relationships and ethical considerations for the treatment and conservation of other animals.
“By understanding core beliefs humans hold about what separates us from other animals, we can tailor educational and conservation programs to focus on what we know humans will readily accept—that animals experience a range of emotions, a lot of which are just like ours,” Dr. Neldner said.
More information
Karri Neldner et al, Children and adults across 15 countries believe in human uniqueness of mind: a cross-cultural investigation of cross-species mind perception, Journal of Environmental Psychology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102861
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