Psychological Predictors of Bystander Reactions to the Abuse of Animals and Humans

While bystander reactions to violence against humans have been well studied, less is known about how people react to animal abuse. We studied whether the same psychological predictors are relevant to reactions to the abuse of animals and humans. We examined the role of Dark Tetrad traits (Narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism), ideologies of superiority (social dominance orientation and speciesism-the belief in human superiority over nonhuman animals), as well as moral disengagement, self-efficacy, and descriptive social norms in predicting reactions to animal and child abuse. In a survey study (N = 518), participants indicated their general reactions to animal abuse as well as how they would react in a situation depicting the abuse of a dog and a child. The general reactions to animal abuse were best predicted by the Dark traits and the endorsement of the ideologies of superiority, most significantly, sadism, and speciesism. Both animal and child abuse elicited high and comparable levels of active response intentions. Bystander reactions in the case of animal abuse were differentiated by moral disengagement and perceived self-efficacy as well as ideologies of dominance, gender, and sadism. Reactions to child abuse were primarily predicted by gender, self-efficacy, and sadism, as well as moral disengagement and SDO. We propose that strengthening self-efficacy and reexamining moral disengagement strategies are crucial to violence prevention, as well as espousing a critical outlook toward ideologies of superiority over both humans and nonhuman animals.