Are Negative Personality Traits Linked to Cruelty to Animals?
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Scientists have long wondered if there is a link between
cruelty to animals and other criminal acts. However, not much attention has
been paid to the link between personality and attitudes to animals. Now a team
of scientists led by Phillip Kavanagh at the University of South Australia have
investigated whether negative personality traits are associated with negative
attitudes to animals.
Reference
The paper focusses on three personality traits that are
known as the “Dark Triad”: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Narcissists think they are special, better
than other people, and lack warmth. Machiavellianism involves a propensity to
deceive other people and to be detached from moral standards. Psychopathy
includes interpersonal factors such as lack of empathy as well as lifestyle
factors which include impulsiveness and juvenile delinquency.
The personality traits were assessed using standardized
tests, or shortened versions of these tests. There were four questions about whether
participants had ever been cruel to animals. Participants also completed a set
of questions about their attitudes to animals, with questions which ranged from
hunting animals for food to how they feel about deliberate cruelty to animals.
The questionnaire was completed by 205 women and 22 men who
responded to a request for participants on Facebook or via email. Most were
Australian.
Scores on the three personality traits were linked to both
attitudes to animals and behaviours to animals. People who scored highly on the
“Dark Triad” had more negative attitudes to animals, and were more likely to
have shown cruelty to animals. Gender and age were also important: men and younger
people were more likely to have negative attitudes and show cruelty.
Some people started but did not complete the questionnaire,
suggesting that it was onerous (perhaps especially since it was asking people
to reflect on negative topics). Although it would be interesting to have more
demographic information about participants, it’s good that the researchers
invited ordinary people to take part, instead of just targeting students. The
relatively small proportion of men is an issue, but one that is common in
research.
It should be remembered that, as far as is known, the people
who completed this survey were normal. It would be very interesting for future
research to include both normal and clinical populations, and to see if there are
risk factors that make someone more likely to move from the normal to clinical
end of the spectrum. A larger sample with a wide age range would be especially
interesting, since other research suggests that cruelty to animals is more
prevalent amongst young people.
These results show a connection between negative personality
traits and negative attitudes to animals. Psychopathy was the most important predictor,
which suggests that empathy plays a role in how we feel about animals. It also
suggests that empathy for people and empathy for animals go hand-in-hand.
Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and also has a column at Psychology Today. Todd lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, one dog, and one cat.
Reference
Kavanagh, Philip S., Signal, Tania D., and Taylor, Nik (2013) The dark triad and animal cruelty: Dark personalities, dark attitudes, and dark behaviours. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(6), 666-670.
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