Animal welfare and human ethics: A personality study

Konstanze Albrecht, Florentin Krämer and Nora Szech

Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economics of Change from WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Abstract: We elicit concern for animal welfare in an incentivized, direct and real setup that allows us to separate genuine interest in animal welfare from confounding factors like advertisement, replacement arguments or image concerns. Subjects choose between intensive farming and organic living conditions for a laying hen. Opting for better living conditions is costly, but guarantees better food, daylight, and more space to the hen. Hence subjects have to trade off a selfish benefit (money) against the welfare of a hen. Our data shed light on a long-standing philosophical debate about the relationship between animal welfare and human ethics. We confirm that subjects with higher interests in the hen's well-being exhibit higher moral standards towards humans. Supporters of intensive farming are significantly less prosocial and open-minded, and more Machiavellian than others.

Keywords: Animal welfare; human ethics; experiment; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D62 D69 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Animal Welfare and Human Ethics: A Personality Study (2017)
Working Paper: Animal Welfare and Human Ethics: A Personality Study (2017)
Working Paper: Animal welfare and human ethics: A personality study (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wzbeoc:spii2017307

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