Su Bingtao, Koda Naoko, Martens Pim
International Centre for Integrated Assessment and Sustainable Development (ICIS), Maastricht University, MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.
School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Saiwai-cho, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan.
PLoS One. 2018 Jan 5;13(1):e0190781. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190781. eCollection 2018.
Recently, studies in the United States and European countries have shown that the degree of attachment is associated with the attribution of emotions to companion animals. These studies imply that investigating the degree of attachment to companion animals is a good way for researchers to explore animal emotions and then improve animal welfare. Although a promising area of study, in Japan, no empirical studies have examined the correlation between the degree of attachment and the attribution of emotions to companion animals. In this research, we aimed to assess companion animal owners' attribution of six primary (anger, joy, sadness, disgust, fear and surprise) and four secondary (shame, jealousy, disappointment and compassion) emotions to their dogs and cats, as well as how the degree of attachment related to such attribution of emotions from a Japanese cultural perspective. The "Pet Bonding Scale" (PBS), which is used to determine the level of bonding between humans and animals, was introduced to measure respondents' degree of attachment to their companion animals. The results of a questionnaire (N = 546) distributed throughout Japan showed that respondents attributed a wide range of emotions to their animals. Companion animals' primary emotions, compared to secondary emotions, were more commonly attributed by their owners. The attribution of compassion and jealousy was reported at a high level (73.1% and 56.2%, respectively), which was surprising as compassion and jealousy are generally defined as secondary emotions. All participants were highly attached to their companion animals, and this attachment was positively associated with the attribution of emotions (9/10) to companion animals (all p < 0.05). This study is one of the first to investigate animal emotions by analyzing the bonding between companion animals and owners in Japan, and it can therefore provide knowledge to increase Japanese people's awareness of animal welfare.
最近，美国和欧洲国家的研究表明，情感依赖程度与对伴侣动物情感的归因有关。这些研究意味着，对研究人员来说，调查对伴侣动物的情感依赖程度是探索动物情感进而改善动物福利的一个好方法。尽管这是一个很有前景的研究领域，但在日本，尚无实证研究考察情感依赖程度与对伴侣动物情感归因之间的相关性。在本研究中，我们旨在评估伴侣动物主人对其犬猫六种主要情绪（愤怒、喜悦、悲伤、厌恶、恐惧和惊讶）和四种次要情绪（羞耻、嫉妒、失望和同情）的归因，以及从日本文化视角来看情感依赖程度与这种情感归因是如何相关的。我们引入了用于确定人与动物之间情感联系程度的“宠物亲密关系量表”（PBS）来测量受访者对其伴侣动物的情感依赖程度。在日本全国范围内发放的一份问卷（N = 546）结果显示，受访者将多种情绪归因于他们的动物。与次要情绪相比，主人更常将主要情绪归因于伴侣动物。同情和嫉妒的归因比例较高（分别为73.1%和56.2%），这很令人惊讶，因为同情和嫉妒通常被定义为次要情绪。所有参与者都对其伴侣动物高度依恋，且这种依恋与对伴侣动物的情感归因（9/10）呈正相关（所有p < 0.05）。本研究是首批通过分析日本伴侣动物与主人之间的亲密关系来调查动物情感的研究之一，因此可为提高日本人的动物福利意识提供知识。
