joshuawithmartin
New member
"In this talk, Dr. Palmer discusses the relationship between attitudes toward animals, adherence to dog-training methods, and gender ideologies. Dr. Palmer discusses how the endorsement of male role norms predict the willingness to use aversive training methods, empathy towards companion animals, and beliefs in human supremacy."
The other day I found out about this presentation from a friend but wasn't able to watch the live webinar, but thought it was a super interesting topic. As someone whose been in online dog spaces, worked with the public IRL regarding their dogs in a variety of contexts, and who has a strong interest in animal behavior, the demographics of who is drawn towards what methods and why has crossed my mind often. I've often thought about how if I went back to grad school that this would be one area of study I'd like to delve into, and this sounds like an interesting look into that! They've posted the video now and I really wanted to share it with you guys as I'm sure there are others that have thought about the same topic. I have not watched this yet but plan on it this evening (its about an hour long). Here is some more information on Dr. Palmer, and the abstract for her research paper.
"Presenting at this colloquium will be Dr. Lindsay Palmer who will discuss the relationship between attitudes toward animals, adherence to dog-training methods, and gender ideologies. Dr. Palmer will discuss how the endorsement of male role norms predict the willingness to use aversive training methods, empathy towards companion animals, and beliefs in human supremacy. Dr. Palmer will also seek feedback from the audience during the Q&A portion of the event as to the future directions of their work.
Lindsay Palmer, PhD is a post-doctoral scholar in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at UMass-Chan Medical School. She received her PhD in Psychology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Penn State. Her research program leverages a feminist perspective in the study of social issues, the human-animal bond, health disparities, and behavioral interventions.
Abstract:
In his popular show “The Dog Whisperer”, Cesar Milan shares with thousands of viewers dog training strategies that rely on dominance theory or the idea that humans must assert themselves as “alphas” or a “pack leader” when training their dogs (Wlodarczyk, 2017). Dominance theory is a lay theory—one that primarily exists in popular culture with a little-to-no scientific basis. That is, dominance theory as it exists in popular culture significantly diverges from nuanced scientific discourse in animal behavior. Indeed, many scientists and animal behaviorists suspect that the pervasiveness of the dominance-based ideology may have downstream consequences that jeopardize the welfare of dogs (Eaton, 2011; Todd, 2018). As noted by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB, 2009), one possibility is that dominance theory could motivate owners to use more forceful and aversive training methods. Recent research work finds that men are less likely to use positive reinforcement training methods than women (Johnson & Wynne, 2022). In the current work, we examine the relationship between Dominance Theory, masculinity, and aversive training. Specifically, we investigated the endorsement of male role norms (e.g., “Men should always be the boss”, “Boys should prefer to play with trucks rather than dolls”), beliefs in Dominance Theory, attitudes towards training methods, beliefs in human supremacy over animals, and empathy towards companion animals. Based on an a-priori power analysis, we collected (N= 312, 65% women) undergraduate subject pool participants to complete an online survey. Using linear regression, we found that regardless of gender, endorsement of male role norms predicted the willingness to use aversive training methods, greater beliefs in Dominance Theory, less willingness to use training science-based training methods, lower empathy towards companion animals, and beliefs in human supremacy over animals (all p-values
The other day I found out about this presentation from a friend but wasn't able to watch the live webinar, but thought it was a super interesting topic. As someone whose been in online dog spaces, worked with the public IRL regarding their dogs in a variety of contexts, and who has a strong interest in animal behavior, the demographics of who is drawn towards what methods and why has crossed my mind often. I've often thought about how if I went back to grad school that this would be one area of study I'd like to delve into, and this sounds like an interesting look into that! They've posted the video now and I really wanted to share it with you guys as I'm sure there are others that have thought about the same topic. I have not watched this yet but plan on it this evening (its about an hour long). Here is some more information on Dr. Palmer, and the abstract for her research paper.
"Presenting at this colloquium will be Dr. Lindsay Palmer who will discuss the relationship between attitudes toward animals, adherence to dog-training methods, and gender ideologies. Dr. Palmer will discuss how the endorsement of male role norms predict the willingness to use aversive training methods, empathy towards companion animals, and beliefs in human supremacy. Dr. Palmer will also seek feedback from the audience during the Q&A portion of the event as to the future directions of their work.
Lindsay Palmer, PhD is a post-doctoral scholar in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at UMass-Chan Medical School. She received her PhD in Psychology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Penn State. Her research program leverages a feminist perspective in the study of social issues, the human-animal bond, health disparities, and behavioral interventions.
Abstract:
In his popular show “The Dog Whisperer”, Cesar Milan shares with thousands of viewers dog training strategies that rely on dominance theory or the idea that humans must assert themselves as “alphas” or a “pack leader” when training their dogs (Wlodarczyk, 2017). Dominance theory is a lay theory—one that primarily exists in popular culture with a little-to-no scientific basis. That is, dominance theory as it exists in popular culture significantly diverges from nuanced scientific discourse in animal behavior. Indeed, many scientists and animal behaviorists suspect that the pervasiveness of the dominance-based ideology may have downstream consequences that jeopardize the welfare of dogs (Eaton, 2011; Todd, 2018). As noted by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB, 2009), one possibility is that dominance theory could motivate owners to use more forceful and aversive training methods. Recent research work finds that men are less likely to use positive reinforcement training methods than women (Johnson & Wynne, 2022). In the current work, we examine the relationship between Dominance Theory, masculinity, and aversive training. Specifically, we investigated the endorsement of male role norms (e.g., “Men should always be the boss”, “Boys should prefer to play with trucks rather than dolls”), beliefs in Dominance Theory, attitudes towards training methods, beliefs in human supremacy over animals, and empathy towards companion animals. Based on an a-priori power analysis, we collected (N= 312, 65% women) undergraduate subject pool participants to complete an online survey. Using linear regression, we found that regardless of gender, endorsement of male role norms predicted the willingness to use aversive training methods, greater beliefs in Dominance Theory, less willingness to use training science-based training methods, lower empathy towards companion animals, and beliefs in human supremacy over animals (all p-values