Running with Horses: Reflections on the Psychology of Speciesism
While running with my horses, rather than riding on them, I experienced moments of absorption in a sense of “we.” Prompted by that observation, I will reflect on my and others’ research on human intergroup attitudes and speciesism, and offer ideas about the sources of and solutions to the attitudinal component of speciesism. In particular, I will propose that because the way that we perceive and respond to the other is embedded in power relations, strategies to reduce human prejudice can be most effectively applied to interspecies relations if they address this element of context.
Lynne Jackson is an Associate Professor of Psychology at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario, where she researches and publishes about psychological dimensions of issues of social justice. Her work on human intergroup attitudes and relations has recently been extended to address the related problems of environmental inequality and speciesism. She is author of The Psychology of Prejudice: From Attitudes to Social Action, Second edition (APABooks), and can be reached at lynne.jackson@uwo.ca.
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