Perceiving Animals Through Different Demographic and Cultural Lenses.

It is well-documented that human demographic and personality factors are associated with people’s attitudes toward animals. A growing body of evidence shows the relationship between a person’s attitudes toward animals and their gender, age, household income, education, pet ownership, as well as geographic region. However, research into the correlation between public attitudes toward animals and ethical ideologies is still in its infancy and needs further investigation. Ethical ideologies, which include dimensions of idealism and relativism, are often involved in the process of decision-making regarding operational and economic research. However, the study of the role of ethical ideologies concerning public attitudes toward animals has been largely neglected. This chapter will discuss how ethical ideologies and their interaction with human demographics relate to public attitudes toward animals, with The Netherlands as an example. The Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) is used to assess respondents’ ethical ideologies and their relationship with attitudes toward animals, which were measured by the Animal Issue Scale (AIS) and the Animal Attitude Scale (AAS).