Attitudes to Animal Dilemmas: An Exploratory Comparison Between Mexican and English Children

Abstract

This research explores some of the factors that influence the relations about empathy and/or rejection that children establish towards some animal species. The role that school has within the social context in these dynamics was considered. Attitudes of young children (aged 7 to 9) from Mexico and England towards specific animal species, examining attitudinal differences not only between cultures, and educational systems, but between species have been compared. Ecological dilemmas involving animals are used as a method to analyse children's constructions of the environment in the field of moral development and conservation. Children expressed more negative attitudes towards spiders and snakes, than towards monkeys and birds. Although these attitudes in themselves are not surprising, the material in this study provides new information on how young children construct their moral ideas on conservation matters through the used of ecological dilemmas. Children's reactions vary according to culture, experience, affiliation for a particular animal and school ethos.