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Northwestern garter snake
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Oregon State University
Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary
- Main Discovery: Kindergarten-age children inherently perceive snakes as distinct from other animals, a view significantly reinforced by negative or objectifying language from parents but reversible through minimal educational intervention.
- Methodology: Researchers conducted a three-part study with over 100 five-year-olds and their parents, using an induction task to measure perceived similarities between snakes, humans, and objects while manipulating exposure to picture books and storybooks containing either objectifying or personifying pronouns.
- Key Data: While prior research indicates 54% of people experience anxiety regarding snakes, this specific study found that without intervention, children did not view snakes as similar to humans or other animals; however, brief exposure to biological information successfully shifted this classification.
- Significance: The research identifies early childhood as the critical window where societal hatred of snakes is formed, which directly hinders conservation efforts for the approximately 450 snake species currently facing elevated extinction risks.
- Future Application: Conservationists and educators can utilize biologically accurate, personifying narratives in early childhood education to "inoculate" children against culturally conditioned antipathy and foster support for reptile habitat restoration.
- Branch of Science: Developmental Psychology and Anthrozoology
- Additional Detail: The study revealed that when parents utilized negative language or storybooks employed "it" pronouns, children were psychologically encouraged to categorize snakes as fundamentally different from humans, whereas personifying language bridged this conceptual gap.
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| juvenile gopher snake Photo Credit: Courtesy of Oregon State University |
A study of more than 100 kindergarten-age children suggests kids tend to think of snakes differently than they do other animals and that hearing negative or objectifying language about the slithery reptiles might contribute to that way of thinking.
The study also suggests it takes minimal intervention to “inoculate” a child against snake negativity.
The findings, published in Anthrozoös are important for multiple reasons, explains co-author Jeff Loucks of Oregon State University.
Snakes are reviled in many human cultures but little is known about how children develop feelings of fear and vilification toward an animal that plays an important role in the balance of many ecosystems.
At least 450 of the more than 4,000 identified snake species are facing elevated risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but public support for protecting them and restoring their habitat is weak – probably because of a general societal hatred of snakes.
“Childhood is a critical time for shaping someone’s attitudes and behaviors toward animals,” Loucks said. “Snakes have a very negative reputation in Western societies and are commonly misunderstood.”
Loucks, professor of teaching in OSU’s College of Liberal Arts, cites earlier research that shows snakes trigger some level of anxiety in 54% of all people and that the average American has a negative attitude toward snakes.
“Data indicate that it’s common for U.S. drivers to go out of their way to run over a snake,” he said.
Loucks and study leader Denée Buchko of the University of Regina sought to find the roots of that antipathy and the roles language and education play in its development. The three-part project involved 5-year-olds, their parents, pictures of snakes and descriptive language that might suggest snakes were more like other animals than inanimate objects or vice-versa.
The scientists used a technique known as an induction task to assess how similar kids think snakes are to humans, to other non-human animals and to non-living things.
“Before we gave them this task, we had parents look through a picture book of snakes with their child, and we also read children a story book about a day in the life of a snake,” Loucks said. “The story book either referred to the snakes more like an object – with ‘it’ pronouns and not referencing feelings or thoughts – or more like a person, with ‘she’ pronouns and references to thoughts and feelings.”
The researchers found that when parents used negative language when talking about snakes, children were encouraged to think about snakes as being different from humans. They also found that the objectifying language in the storybook had the same effect.
“Something unexpected, though, was that kids generally thought that snakes were similar to other non-human animals,” Loucks said. “So, we did a second study with different subjects, took away the picture book and the storybook and just gave kids the induction task. In this case, they did not think that snakes were similar to humans or other animals.”
With another set of subjects, Louck and Buchko brought back the picture book and the storybook, and again they found that kids thought snakes were similar to other animals but not to humans, replicating the findings from the first part of the research.
“It seems as though 5-year-old kids, from Western cultures anyway, tend to think that snakes are very different from other animals, and negative and objectifying language might contribute to that,” Loucks said. “But some exposure to snakes and learning about their biological needs can act as an inoculation against negative attitudes toward snakes, which can help to engender care and respect for these animals.”
Funding: This research was supported by a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery grant.
Published in journal: Anthrozoös
Title: The Role of Objectification and Negativity in Young Children’s Conceptualization of Snakes
Authors: Denée Buchko, and Jeff Loucks
Source/Credit: Oregon State University | Steve Lundeberg
Reference Number: psy021626_01
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