Can fiction make us kinder to other species? The impact of fiction on pro-animal attitudes and behavior

Abstract

The purpose of the three studies described in this paper was to investigate the effects that reading fiction has on pro-animal attitudes and behavior. Although such effects have been widely claimed to exist by writers, activists and scholars, there has been scant experimental data to support that. In particular, there have been no experimental studies on the impact of fiction on attitudes toward animals over time and no experimental studies on the impact of fiction on behavior on behalf of animals. Our studies sought to address these limitations. Study 1 (n = 62) investigated the impact of a fictional narrative on attitudes toward animal welfare a week after exposure. Study 2 (n = 410) investigated the impact of that same narrative on attitudes toward animal welfare over the period of up to two months. Study 3 (n = 186) sought to establish whether that same text would have an impact on behavior on behalf of animals. All these studies were conducted in Poland on Polish subjects and with the use of texts written in the Polish language. While Study 1 yielded a positive result, the results of the remaining studies were negative. In conclusion, we discuss the practical and theoretical implications of these data.