" People may feel more empathy for dogs than for some of their fellow humans, a new study finds.
When it comes to victims of violence, people may be less disturbed by the suffering of human adults, who are considered capable of taking care of themselves, the study suggests. Meanwhile, children, puppies and full-grown dogs are perceived as dependent and vulnerable."
http://consumer.healthday.com/general-health-information-16/pets-and-health-news-531/briefs-emb-8-10-12-01-am-edt-asa-people-may-have-more-empathy-for-dogs-than-some-people-679016.html
Well, yeah. They needed a study for this?
No kidding. When I read about a dog or a child hurt the first thought that comes to mind is how scared and vulnerable they must have felt, not understanding why someone they love or trust could make them hurt. Even if it’s an unknown to them person, their complete confusion of why life hurts so much makes my heart ache.
I have plenty of sympathy for adult victims, but the vulnerability and complete trust piece of it isn’t quite as strong.
Compare the way people were willing to forgive Ray Lewis to the way people still hate Michael Vick.
I’m going to make a psychic prediction without having read the study: They only studied Westerners.
They picked a male as their adult, which is going to skew the results. People are known to feel less compassion for males, both adult males and children. Even parents take longer to respond to the cries of a baby boy than a baby girl.
PastTense, we ask that people put more effort into an OP than posting a link and a quote from it. If you have something to say about this study, feel free to start a new OP.
I’m closing this for lack of content in the OP. If anyone other than PastTense wants to start a thread, feel free to write up a few sentences on your own thoughts and share the link.
twickster, MPSIMS moderator