Narratives for Animal Freedom Research Report (Animal Think Tank)

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Report: Narratives for Animal Freedom Research Report
Author: Animal Think Tank
Date: August 2023

Summary of Key Findings

This report outlines Animal Think Tank's research to identify the most persuasive narratives for the animal freedom movement in the UK. The research involved two main components: mapping dominant cultural narratives and testing the effectiveness of different pro-animal messages.

• Dominant Cultural Narratives: A study of 500 UK participants identified seven dominant narratives about animals:

  • Sentientism (92% agree): Recognition of animals' cognitive and emotional abilities.
  • Economy (87% agree): Belief in the economic importance of animal agriculture.
  • Welfare (86% agree): Support for compassionate treatment and more regulations in farming.
  • Moral Lifestyle (71% agree): Endorsing veganism/vegetarianism as ethically preferable.
  • Justifications (70% agree): Belief that eating animals is normal, natural, and necessary.
  • Anthropocentrism (50% agree): The view that humans are superior and animals can be exploited.
  • Manly Meat (19% agree): Stereotypes associating meat-eating with masculinity.

• Two Narrative Groupings: Participants were clustered into two groups based on their responses:

  • High Ethical Concern for Animals (41%): Broadly agreed with Sentientism, Welfarism, and Moral Lifestyle.
  • Low Ethical Concern for Animals (59%): Broadly agreed with Justifications, Anthropocentrism, and Economy.

• Narrative Overlap: Despite the clusters, 60% of the "High Ethical Concern" group still endorse economy-based narratives, and 53% of the "Low Ethical Concern" group already endorse sentientism.

• Message Testing Methodology: In collaboration with Rhetorical Impact Lab and Lancaster University, nearly 14,500 participants across 5 studies were shown different pro-animal messages to measure shifts in attitude compared to a control group.

• What Worked - Effective Narratives: Three message framings significantly increased agreement with pro-animal statements:

  • Animal Abilities: Highlighting animals' rich inner lives, unique abilities, and feelings increased pro-animal agreement by up to 11%.
  • Morality: Arguing for an ethical obligation to treat animals well increased agreement by up to 9%.
  • Social Progress: Framing animal freedom as the next logical step in society's moral evolution increased agreement by up to 6%.

• What Didn't Work - Ineffective Narratives:

  • Messages using terms like "speciesism" or "oppression" had a negative effect, decreasing agreement with pro-animal statements by up to 8%.
  • Appeals to specific identities like "animal lover" or "vegan-hearted" were found to have no effect.

• Other Winning Narratives: The report also recommends using successful narratives from other social movements, as tested by the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC):

  • Unequal by Design: Society's power imbalances are intentionally constructed and can be redesigned for a fairer future.
  • A Bigger Us: Focus on commonalities and expand society's circle of concern to include other animals.
  • Citizens: Emphasize collective action over individual consumer choices to achieve social change.

• Future Research: Animal Think Tank plans to conduct further testing on values, aspirational identities, and framings of the human-animal relationship, as well as conduct focus groups.