Why is it that we treat various species of animals so differently? In episode 71, Verónica Sevillano with the Autonomous University of Madrid discusses her research applying social psychology and conservation biology to understand the relationships people have with animals. Her chapter, “Animals as social groups: An intergroup relations analysis of human-animal conflicts” [PDF] was co-authored with Susan Fiske and published in the book Why people love and exploit animals: Bridging insights from academia and advocacy (edited by Kristof Dhont and Gordon Hodson) in November 2019.

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Hosts / Producers

Ryan Watkins & Doug Leigh

How to Cite

Watkins, R., Leigh, D., & Sevillano, V.. (2020). Parsing Science – Why We Love & Exploit Animals. figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12084204

Music

What’s The Angle? by Shane Ivers

Transcript

Verónica Sevillano: Our stereotypes about animal species have an impact on how we feel and how we behave toward distinct animal species.

Ryan Watkins: This is Parsing Science: the unpublished stories behind the world’s most compelling science, as told by the researcher themselves. I’m Ryan Watkins.

Doug Leigh: And I’m Doug Leigh. Today, in episode 71 of Parsing Science, we’re joined by Verónica Sevillano with the Department of Social Psychology and Methodology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She’ll discuss her research with Susan Fiske from Princeton University into applying social psychology to understand why we treat some animals as pets, but others as dinner. Here’s Verónica Sevillano.

Sevillano: Hi. I am Verónica Sevillano and [am] a social and environmental psychologist at the Psychology College in Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. I was raised in the suburbs of Madrid, Spain. And, during my childhood, I was very close to environment in general, and to rural areas in Toledo in particular. I was a scout. I studied psychology, and I earned my PhD in Complutense University in Madrid on environmental concern, and basic social psychological processes. After my PhD, it was clear to me that I have to pursue it a postdoc abroad. And my specialization at the time was environmental psychology, but I wanted to be focused on basic social psychology. So I contacted Professor Susan Fiske at Princeton, and we applied for a postdoc Fulbright scholarship.

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