Prejudice across species lines: Generalized prejudice predicts attitudes, emotions, and behaviors towards animal exploitation

People who are prejudiced against one social group also tend to be prejudiced against other social groups—they show generalized prejudice. Many scholars have noted parallels between the exploitation and marginalization of certain social groups (e.g., racism) and the treatment of non-human animals (i.e., speciesism), suggesting that generalized prejudice may even extend across species lines. Two studies tested this hypothesis using large and diverse participant samples and different operationalizations of prejudice. Study 1 (56759 participants from 46 European countries) showed a positive association between prejudice and human supremacy beliefs, a key feature of speciesist ideology. Study 2 (1566 Dutch participants) revealed positive associations between prejudice and a host of attitudes, emotional responses, and behaviors related to the exploitation of animals. These findings support recent theorizing on the common psychological roots (e.g., social dominance orientation) of both human-directed and animal-directed prejudice and attest to the generality of generalized prejudice.