Identifying with other animals and human well-being: Extending perspectives on the social cure and human-animal relations

Abstract

Prior research has uncovered a beneficial role for social identities in promoting human well-being. Whether these benefits also arise from the tendency to identify with a highly superordinate category that includes other animals, has never been examined. Building on theories of social and superordinate identification and prior research on human-animal interactions, we explore the associations between the dimensions of identification with animals (solidarity with animals, human-animal similarity, animal pride) and psychological well-being. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among a representative sample of Canadian adults (N = 2,424). Controlling for sociodemographic variables, animal pride played a particularly clear role in predicting higher psychological well-being (higher vitality, life satisfaction, presence of life meaning; lower stress, loneliness, psychological inflexibility). In contrast, solidarity with animals predicted lower well-being (lower life satisfaction; higher search for meaning). Our findings provide a nuanced understanding of how the social cure perspective may be extended to highly inclusive superordinate categories.