Perceptions of personality: How what we see influences our perceptions about and behavior toward companion animals

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how visual media are used to affect human perceptions of personality in non-human animals. Studies on shelter populations in the United States (Workman and Hoffman, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 18(4), 388-397, 2015; Svoboda and Hoffman, A novel, empirical test of black dog syndrome. Poster presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the International Society of Anthrozoology, Chicago, IL, USA, 2013; Lum, Grandinetti, Halse, Sims, and Chin, The influence of a dog’s size and color on assessment of responsibility. Poster presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the International Society of Anthrozoology, Chicago, IL USA, 2013a; Lum, Nau, and McClellan, Exploring “black dog” syndrome: How color can influence perceptions of companion animals. Poster presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the International Society of Anthrozoology, Chicago, IL, USA, 2013b) indicate that how humans perceive homeless animals affects their adoption chances. Those perceptions, and in turn individual animal’s adoption chances, are directly influenced by photographs and videos posted on the Internet. Creating influential photographs and video that subsequently are posted on the Internet can result in saving lives through adoption from shelters and rescues. Understanding how humans assign characteristics such as “friendly,” “playful” and “happy” based on visual media will allow shelters and rescuers to increase their adoption rates, decrease euthanasia rates and save lives.