Attitudes to Animals: Demographics Within a Community Sample

The results of various studies have suggested a range of demographic and personality variables that may affect attitudes toward the treatment of nonhuman species; however, the literature has reached little consensus. Various limited populations have used The Attitude to Animals Scale (AAS), developed initially by Herzog, Betchart, and Pittman (1991), as a quantitative measure of attitudes toward the treatment of nonhuman species. The current study administered the AAS to a large community sample within Australia, resulting in approximately 600 respondents. The study found demographic variables such as age, educational level, presence of children in the current dwelling, current, and past companion animal ownership to have no statistically significant effect on AAS scores. The study found both occupation and income to have an effect on AAS scores. This paper examines and discusses all of these variables and their effects (or lack thereof).