论文标题：An empirical examination of the conceptualization of companion animals

期刊：BMC Psychology

作者：Ruben Hoffmann, Carl Johan Lagerkvist, Malin Hagberg Gustavsson and Bodil S. Holst

发表时间：2018/05/04

数字识别码：10.1186/s40359-018-0228-1

原文链接：https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40359-018-0228-1?utm_source=other&utm_medium=other&utm_content=null&utm_campaign=BSCN_2_DD_BMCPsych_Art_Scinet

微信链接：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/1MwcGCzmzoypK-Vk4Im6pg

BMC Psychology最近发表了一项研究，调查了人类对动物陪伴看法的经验性数据。了解我们如何看待猫狗，有助于我们进一步深入理解它们对人类的影响，进而认识到这类小动物的存在对人类的意义。

与不同物种建立相互间的陪伴关系（例如主人与被饲养的宠物）是人类由来已久的行为，这种关系对于人类具有很重要的意义。过去，人们对宠物的重视体现在与动物伴侣分享食物和住所等资源。而现在，这种重视主要体现在金钱上。2017年一项全球范围的研究估计，人类在宠物护理商品和服务上总共花费了1090亿美元。虽然我们能知道动物伴侣所带来的经济利益，但是我们却不清楚人类在精神上对待宠物伴侣的看法。

为了更好地理解人类对待大众宠物（如猫和狗）的看法，Hoffman和同事们最近在BMC Psychology上发表的研究对此进行了调查，希望可以弄清楚人类是怎么看待这些伴侣动物们的。

Hoffman和他的同事们采用在线调查的方式，使用开放式问题询问了受试者们对待猫和狗的看法，并通过这种自由引导的方式来发掘出受试者心目中最显著的观念（如特征与情感）。“当想到猫时，你的第一印象是什么？”在自由引导方式下，类似这样的开放式问题能够引导出五花八门的回答。

研究人员认为人对动物最显著的概念，是与动物的整体形象最相关的概念。因此，整体形象概念也比其他概念更重要。

然后，研究人员对各种各样的回答进行了分类。他们将答案中的同义词（如友好的，亲切的，暖心的）分为一类；又进一步将含义相近的词分成一类，例如，在个性/心理类别下，倔强的、骄傲的和正直的同属于一类。同时，还根据是否拥有宠物，将受试者进行了分类；对于没有宠物的受试者，根据其是否想要有宠物再进行分类。

对于如何看待小狗，受试者们不管是已经拥有了或者是想要拥有小狗，都给出了相同的回答：“友好”、“爱”、“陪伴”、“欢乐”和“忠诚”。这一结果与猫的情况有所不同，同样的人群对于猫的看法中最常见的只有“有个性”和“爱”。

有趣的是，在不想饲养小猫小狗的受试者中，更多的回答是“麻烦精”。

这个研究的结果不仅表明人们对待猫和狗的看法各不相同，还说明与宠物处于不同关系的个人也可能对宠物产生一样的看法。比如人们往往将狗与“友谊”、“爱”、“陪伴”、“欢乐”和“忠诚”联系起来，而将猫与“有个性”和“爱”联系起来。

人们对待猫的看法特别有趣。排名前两位的“爱”和“有个性”的重要性至少要比排第三位的“陪伴”高30%。此外，“社交”是最不重要的属性之一。这些发现反映了人们在对待猫和人之间的关系中具有貌似冲突的看法，喜爱的概念相对于陪伴和社交是独立的。

猫和狗共有的最显著属性是“爱”。或许这就是我们极度重视小猫小狗的原因吧。虽然我们为这些宠物花费了许多，但是他们的陪伴也回馈给了我们许多精神收获。

所以想想古埃及人、日本文化、甚至整个世界对小猫视频的痴迷。几个世纪以来，人类一直崇拜着圣洁般存在的猫，也喜欢这忠诚善良的狗，是因为它们也为我们提供了最珍贵的礼物：爱。

摘要：

Background

The extensive keeping of companion animals and the substantial monetary amount we spend on these animals indicate that they are highly valued. Although the benefits humans derive from keeping cats and dogs have been extensively studied, how we conceptualize these animals has received limited attention. How people conceptualize cats and dogs is important as it influences human behavior and the well-being of humans as well as animals. The objective of this paper was to examine the conceptual meaning of dogs and cats and the relative importance of meanings assigned to these species.

Methods

Based on a Swedish on-line survey (n = 2028) the free-elicitation method was used to measure the salience of conceptualizations for dogs and cats as this method measures the accessibility of the focal object in people’s memory. An R-index approach was used to analyze the importance and dominance of attributes on the premise that the order in which attributes were listed by respondents reflects their relative importance. The sum of the choice probability was used to evaluate the stochastic rank order of attributes and Somers’ D was used to examine difference in rankings between groups of respondents.

Results

For dogs, human well-being in terms of emotional and social support, and emotional attachment (friendship, love, companionship, joy and loyalty) were found to be most important while elements related to the animals themselves (e.g. personality of the animal) were found to be less important. For cats, personality of the animal was along with love found to be most important. The results were largely consistent across different types of households.

Conclusions

The results provide information on the relative importance of salient attributes and thus indicate which attributes that are important to consider, for example, when analyzing human-animal interaction, animal welfare, human health and subjective-well-being, or the economic value of cats and dogs.

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https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40359-018-0228-1?utm_source=other&utm_medium=other&utm_content=null&utm_campaign=BSCN_2_DD_BMCPsych_Art_Scinet

期刊介绍:

BMC Psychology (https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers manuscripts on all aspects of psychology, human behavior and the mind, including developmental, clinical, cognitive, experimental, health and social psychology, as well as personality and individual differences. The journal welcomes quantitative and qualitative research methods, including animal studies.

（来源：科学网）