Moral Concern Toward Different Categories of Animal Species: Using the Animal Moral Concern Scale to Examine Animal-Related Self-Perceptions and Behaviors
Scholars have called for increasing theoretical and empirical attention to the diversity of humananimalrelations, aiming to better understand the psychological mechanisms that underliehumans’ varied perceptions of and interactions with different types of animal species. Employingdata from 1650 adults demographically representative of the United States population, weexplored the factorial structure of individuals’ level of moral concern towards differentcategories of animals; developed a 15-item multidimensional Animal Moral Concern Scale(AMCS), and investigated the relations of AMCS scores with external variables. We found thatmoral concern towards animals can be represented by a bifactor structure where a general factorcaptures “level of concern towards animals in general,” and four specific factors capture theresidualized concern towards “Wild,” “Farm/Food,” “Pest”, and “Companion” animals. Factorscores of the AMCS showed differential relationship with participants’ perceived level of beingan animal lover, diet choices, and engagement with animal welfare support activities.