Human Attitude toward Reptiles: A Relationship between Fear, Disgust, and Aesthetic Preferences

Animals

Eva Landová¹  Daniel Frynta¹  Markéta Janovcová¹  Šárka Peléšková¹  Kristýna Sedláčková¹  Barbora Žampachová¹  Silvie Rádlová²  Jakub Polák² 

[1] Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 43 Prague, Czech Republic;National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67 Klecany, Czech Republic;

关键词: reptiles;    emotions;    fear;    disgust;    beauty;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ani9050238

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Focusing on one group of animals can bring interesting results regarding our attitudes toward them and show the key features that our evaluation of such animals is based on. Thus, we designed a study of human perception of all reptiles focusing on the relationship between perceived fear, disgust, and aesthetic preferences and differences between snakes and other reptiles. Two sets containing 127 standardized photos of reptiles were developed, with one species per each subfamily. Respondents were asked to rate the animals according to fear, disgust, and beauty on a seven-point Likert scale. Evaluation of reptile species shows that people tend to perceive them as two clearly distinct groups based on their similar morphotype. In a subset of lizards, there was a positive correlation between fear and disgust, while disgust and fear were both negatively correlated with beauty. Surprisingly, a positive correlation between fear and beauty of snakes was revealed, i.e., the most feared species also tend to be perceived as beautiful. Snakes represent a distinct group of animals that is also reflected in the theory of attentional prioritization of snakes as an evolutionary relevant threat.

【 授权许可】

Unknown