The Relationship Between Prosocial Behavior And Animal Attitudes In A South African And Non-South African Population

Abstract

The relationship established between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes is one considered quite complex and contradictory. The goal of the study was to determine the relationship between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in a South African and non-South African population. A sample of 71 students at Monash South Africa was voluntarily invited to participate in this study. Prosocial behaviour was measured using the Prosocial Tendency Measure (PTM) and animal attitudes were measured using the Animal Attitude Scale (AAS). The first result for this study indicated a significant positive correlation between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in a South African population. The second result of this study indicated a non-significant positive correlation between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in a non-South African population. These results demonstrate that there is a relationship between prosocial and animal attitudes.

Introduction

Evidence suggests that prosociality is central to the wellbeing of social groups across a range of scales. Komorosky and O’Neal (2015) state that the prevention of crime and the fulfillment of social competence are essential for the development of prosocial behaviour, especially when having to consider the increasingly rising issue of animal abuse. Subsequent meta-analysis has found that the link between animal abuse and other forms of negative behaviour considerably can predict future prosocial behaviour. Prosocial behaviour also known as volunteer behaviour intended to benefit another, is a social behaviour that benefits other people or society as a whole through helping, sharing, donating, cooperating and volunteering. In the same light, empathy is a strong motive in eliciting prosocial behaviour. In addition, theorists like Piaget, Erikson, Bandura, Zimmerman, Rogers, and Holland believe that the development of empathy begins at infancy and plays an essential role in a child’s cognitive, social and personality development all throughout their lifetime (Bee, Boyd & Johnson 1998).

The infant-mother attachment by Ainsworth (1979) states that the attachment between a caregiver and a child is essential for the child’s survival. Hence, Hawkins and Williams (2017) argue that this form of attachment in children has its advantages on the development of prosocial behaviour both found in animal and human bonds. Furthermore, the study conducted by Hawkins and Williams (2017), revealed that the attachment humans have on pets is promoted by feelings of empathy, understanding, compassion, and sympathy and that this form of attachment significantly predicts positive animal attitude. However, other studies revealed that an insecure attachment between a child and a caregiver could lead to negative circumstances such as animal abuse, crime, and egocentrism. These findings revealed that formed attachment to animals promotes prosocial behaviour from childhood to adulthood. Henceforth, it can be seen that children and adolescents who display human and animal hostility have witnessed animal abuse in one way or another in their environment. Moreover, the link between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in childhood is seen as an alert to behaviour that may be displayed in adulthood.

A growing body of international research has focused on how the link between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes can be related. However, very little research has been collected in a South African population. Furthermore, international findings have been incompatible with South African data, as we daw more from international data. According to Ebrahim (2007), most of the South African child populations live in poverty. Research, therefore, suggest that this kind of implication on the development of empathy and displays prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes which normally is because of having a low socio-economic status. Henceforth, children living in such conditions risk negative behavioural outcomes, which may continue through adolescence, because of lack of empathy.

Aim and Hypothesis

The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in both South African and non-South African populations. The hypothesis stated that there will a significant positive relationship between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in South African and non-South African population

Participants

A sample of 71 students from Monash South Africa, aged 18-35 years (M = 21.34: SD = 2.46) was examined. The sample of students consisted of 57 South Africans and 14 non-south Africans. A number of 55 students were females and 16 students were males. A number of 50 students had pets and 21 students had no pets. In addition, non-probability sampling was utilized from a link on a Monash Moodle site in order to attain a diverse sampling.

Materials

Students were recruited from Monash Moodle site and were asked to complete a sociodemographic, prosocial tendency measure and animal attitude scale questionnaire. The sociodemographic information included questions about the student’s nationality, age, gender and if they own a pet. The prosocial tendency measure assesses the tendency of individuals to engage in specific forms of prosocial behavior. The 23 item measure, consisting of a 6 point Likert scale with respondents revealing answers from “does not describe me at all” to “describes me greatly” consisting of public, dire, emotional, compliant, anonymous and altruism. Example questions of the measure included “I can help others best when people are watching me” and “It is most fulfilling to me when I can comfort someone who is very distressed”. The prosocial tendency measure has good construct validity and reliability with a Cronbach alpha level of 0 .86. The animal attitude scale assesses individual difference on attitudes towards the treatment of animals (Herzog et al., 1991). The 20 item scale, consisting of a 5 point Likert scale with respondents revealing answers from “strongly disagree” to ‘’strongly agree’’ to conform to the treatment of animals. Example questions from the animal attitude scale included “it is morally wrong to hunt wild animals just for sport” and “there should be extremely stiff penalties including jail sentences for people who participate in cock-fighting”. The animal attitude scale has good construct validity and reliability with a Cronbach alpha level of 0.91.

Procedure

Data was collected and obtained from the Monash University Human Ethics Committee (MUHREC). Communication between the various departments and college professors was made in order to proceed with the study. The study was then linked into the Moodle site and participant was voluntarily invited to participate in the study. The Moodle site included a description and explanation of the study at hand for ethical reasons in order for students to commence with the study. The questionnaire included questions about the students’ demographic information and two other questionnaires, which measured prosocial behaviour and animal attitude. Students were also given an option for canceling the questionnaire for any reasons. Administration of the study took place online, which roughly took about 10 to 12 minutes to finish. From the 9th of September through to 20th of October 2018 data collection commenced. After the questionnaires were completed and data was collected, it was stored and kept in a secure computer for only the student and supervisor to access. The analysis of data was then facilitated through the IBM SPSS Statistics version 25.

Results

All statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics version 25 and all statistical decisions regarding significance were made based on a conventional alpha level of p < 0.001.

Measures for Prosocial Behaviours and Animal Attitudes Study in a South African population

To access the size and direction of the linear relationship between prosocial tendency measures and animal attitudes scores in a South African population, a bivariate Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient (r) was calculated. The bivariate correlation between these two variables was significantly positive and moderate, r (55) = 0.34, p < 0.001.

Prior to calculating r, the assumption of normally, linearity and homoscedasticity were assessed and found to be supported. The test of normality (Kolmogorov-Smirnova, n < 30) for each variable, where the statistic is 0.09 (Sig = 0.2) for the prosocial tendency measure total and statistic is 0.09 (Sig = 0.20) for the animal attitudes scale total, suggesting that the normality assumptions is not violated. The Normal Q-Q plot graph in the sample data are normally distributed as the points are clustered around the diagonal line. Hence, the detrended normal Q-Q plot in the sample data are normally distributed as the points are roughly spread above and below the horizontal line. Similarly, a quick visual inspection of the scatterplot reveals roughly the same amount of variability in the prosocial tendency measure scores at all levels of animal attitude scale total scores, suggesting that the relationship between these two variables is homoscedastic.

Measures for Prosocial Behaviours and Animal Attitudes Study in non-South African population

To access the size and direction of the linear relationship between prosocial tendency measures and animal attitudes scores in a non-South African population, a bivariate Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient (r) was calculated. The bivariate correlation between these two variables was non-significantly positive and small, r (12) = 0.27, p > 0.001.

Prior to calculating r, the assumption of normally, linearity and homoscedasticity were assessed and found to be supported. The test of normality for each variable, where the statistic is 0.94 (Sig = 0.44) for the prosocial tendency measure total and statistic is 0.93 (Sig = 0.44) for the animal attitudes scale total, suggesting that the normality assumptions are not violated. Hence, the Normal Q-Q plot graphs in the sample data are normally distributed as the points are “quite” clustered around the diagonal line. Hence, the detrended normal Q-Q plot in the sample data are normally distributed as the points are roughly spread above and below the horizontal line. Similarly, a quick visual inspection of the scatterplot reveals roughly the same amount of variability in the prosocial tendency measure scores at all levels of animal attitude scale total scores, suggesting that the relationship between these two variables is homoscedastic.

Discussion

The general aim of this study was to explore the relationship between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in both South African and non-South African population. The study tested two different hypotheses, which were based on findings generated in both populations relating to prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes.

The relationship between prosocial behaviour and attitudes towards animals in a South African population.

The hypothesis stated that there would be a significant positive relationship between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in a South Africa population. The result supported the hypothesis and confirmed some of the previous study conducted by Pocock. Pocock’s (n.d) study was carried out in the southern suburbs school in Cape Town examining the evaluation of the effectiveness of a pilot humane education intervention program in increasing empathy for animals and humans. Moreover, the findings revealed that there was a significant positive correlation between animal and human-directed empathy for both groups in the pre-test study. The result proves that a formed attachment between humans and animals is related to a learned attachment between humans and animals. This a result of animal and human-directed empathy, which acts in accordance with Hawkins and Williams study as supported in the introduction. As a result, the relationship between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in South Africa are linked.

The relationship between prosocial behaviour and attitudes towards animals in a non-South African population

The hypothesis stated that there will a significantly positive relationship between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in a non-South African population. However, the hypothesis was not supported by the result. In fact, prosocial behaviour and animal attitude had a non-significant positive relationship in a non-South African population. However, this result did confirm some of the previous studies. For example, Jacobson and Chang (2018) study on the associations between pet ownership and attitudes toward pets with youth socioemotional outcomes revealed that attitudes toward pets were associated with all four outcomes for delinquency, empathy, depressed moods and prosocial behaviour. However, the relationship between prosocial and depressed moods towards pet was small and non-significant. Furthermore, Vidović, Štetić, and Bratko (1999) study also found that the attachments to pets in relation to empathy and prosocial behaviour when associated to loneliness, anger and anxiety was non-significant, therefore this research also confirms this finding. Therefore, this result indicates that the relationship with pets can be affected by certain negative emotions.

The limitation of the study could be considered due to the uncontrolled demographic characteristics that may have resulted in the findings above. Firstly, the sample size between the two populations was compromised, a majority of the students that participated in the study where South African. The findings might not be generalizable to more diverse samples. Hence leading to the non-significant finding between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes in a non-South African population. Secondly, the sample for gender was compromised, there were more females than males. Henceforth, a substantial body of research based on gender and prosocial behaviour state that females show greater concern for animals than men. Thirdly, the sample size of pets, a majority of the students had pets which

Future studies should suggest diverse samples size in relation to the demographic characteristics, especially in each category in order to maximize generalizability. This will enable other researchers to measure better qualifications in the statistic variable. Furthermore, variables such as psychological outcomes should be considered in order not to alter the results. For example, a majority of studies prove that when people were depressed they revealed a small effect of empathy and prosocial behavior towards pets as missioned above.

In conclusion, the link between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes has been empirically documented. Similar studies regarding the relationship between prosocial behaviour and animal attitudes reveal the link between the two variables. Empathy development is linked to prosocial behaviour in the form of social competence. Studies reveal that low levels of empathy from childhood have been linked to aggression and antisocial behaviour in adulthood. This form of development has been witnessed through childhood animal abuse and violence in their environment. Hence, the importance of empathy development is crucial at this time as it carries on to adolescence where cognitive and neurological development continues to develop. Moreover, teenagers continue to develop as they form certain relationships and for those whose empathy development was not encouraged at childhood, the gateway to adolescence provides for such opportunities to be developed. In addition to such opportunities, the use of animal and human bonds is useful for the development of empathy and is done through various methods. For example, programs such as human education, restorative justice, and animal assist have demonstrated the abilities to form empathy for humans while promoting empathy for animals.

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