همدردی با حیوانات: مروری بر مطالعات موجود Empathy for Animals: A Review of the Existing Literature

INTRODUCTION As wildlife and wild places edge closer to extinction, humans are leading increasingly urbanized lives (United Nations 2014). With this urbanization comes a growing disconnect between people and the natural world (Turner et al. 2004). Environmental education seeks to reignite this connection and motivate people to take action on behalf of the environment (Hungerford and Volk 1990). A multitude of organizations and groups actively work to conserve wild animals and wild places. A subset of this group – including zoos, aquariums, museums, sanctuaries, shelters, nature centers, and other informal learning facilities – offer opportunities for people to have educational experiences with wildlife and nature. Experiences in these settings are unique in that they provide impactful multisensory interactions with a diversity of animals that have the potential to influence participants’ attitudes and behaviors based on their affective responses (Clayton et al. 2009; Miller et al. 2004). Research conducted in these facilities found visitors already possess an interest in animals and are therefore likely to experience affective responses when observing animals, including connectedness, associative identity, emotional affinity, and empathy (Berenguer 2007; Chawla 2009; Clayton et al. 2009, 2011; Kals et al. 1999; Mayer and Frantz 2004; Myers et al. 2009; Nisbet et al. 2009; Schultz 2000; Schultz and Tabanico 2007; Tam 2013). There is a body of research surrounding many of these affective responses in animal facilities, however there is a lack of substantive empirical research on empathy development in this domain, as it has historically been focused on companion animals in schools, healthcare, and humane education programs. As we will expand upon, empathy is everpresent within zoos, aquariums, and other informal learning institutions wherein animals and their behaviors are constantly being interpreted to differing degrees of accuracy. As ambassadors for their wild counterparts, animals within these facilities and their human interpreters have a critical opportunity to build deep-rooted connections between the public and species in need. As William Godfrey-Smith describes (1979, 318), “The essential step in recognizing an enlarged community involves coming to see, feel, and understand what was previously perceived as alien and apart; it is the evolution of the capacity of empathy.” By not addressing the presence of empathy in the human-animal relationship, we let slip a powerful tool for developing internal motivation for conservation action and we risk supporting the growth of a community of animal-lovers with well-intended but misplaced or uninformed empathy.