Lecture title: "Motivational Bias in Empathy for Animals: Understanding the Role of Need Satisfaction and Mind Perception"

Abstract: In this talk I will examine some of the motivated biases that our research has uncovered when it comes to our empathy for others. Specifically, I will discuss work on the meat-paradox, which seeks to uncover the motivated reasoning that many people engage in order to overcome conflict between their moral concern for animal welfare and their own desire to consume meat. A key pathway through which people resolve this conflict is by downplaying the mental lives of the animals they eat. Drawing from this insight, I will discuss implications for understanding motivations underlying prejudice more broadly, and specifically cases of dehumanization and objectification. While our prejudice toward others may be driven by fear, anxiety, and trepidation, it may sometimes also be driven by appetitive or approach-motivated states.  

Please register here: bit.ly/EE21Bastian