We are thrilled to announce the 2023 edition of the Animal Advocacy Conference: Insights from the Social Sciences.

The conference will take place June 22-24, 2023 at the University of Kent, UK.

We will bring together researchers from different fields in the social and behavioral sciences, and animal activists and advocates from around the world.

Learn about the latest ideas, findings and campaigns in the following domains:

  • The psychological, social, and societal factors shaping how we perceive and think about animals, human-animal relations, and animal welfare and rights
  • The impact of advocacy and activism strategies related to animal rights, veganism, meat reduction and reduction of other animal products (e.g., dairy, eggs)
  • The social and behavioral science of animal cruelty, meat consumption (and other animal-product consumption), vegetarianism/veganism, and speciesism
  • The connections and intersections between human-animal relations and human intergroup relations as well as between animal ethics and other social justice domains including environmentalism, feminism, and anti-racism

This conference uniquely bridges the gap between academic researchers and activists/professionals in the field of vegan and animal rights advocacy. The conference will create a stimulating environment where academics and activists/advocates exchange relevant knowledge, engage in lively debates, share their ideas, and can start collaborations.

Call for Submissions

The submission portal will open on November 2, 2023. We invite academic and research submissions in three different formats: Oral Presentation, Symposium, Poster Presentation.

For more information and updates: blogs.kent.ac.uk/animaladvocacy

Online: The psychology of meat avoiders

Daniel Rosenfeld gave the October talk in the PHAIR Society Speakers series on “The psychology of meat avoiders”. You can now watch the talk online.

Unfortunately, the first seconds of the talk were not recorded due to a technical glitch, but 99% of the talk is still there!

Online: Speciesism in everyday language

Stefan Leach gave the September talk in the PHAIR Society Speakers series on “Speciesism in Everyday Language”. You can watch the talk online:

Abstract

Speciesism, like other forms of prejudice, is thought to be underpinned by biased patterns of language use. Thus far, however, psychological science has largely focused on how speciesism is reflected in individuals’ thoughts as opposed to wider collective systems of meaning such as language. We present a large-scale quantitative test of speciesism by applying machine-learning methods (word embeddings) to billions of English words derived from conversation, film, books, and the internet. We found evidence of anthropocentric speciesism: words denoting concern (vs. indifference) and value (vs. valuelessness) were more closely associated with words denoting humans compared to most other animals. We also found evidence of companion animal speciesism: the same words were more closely associated with words denoting companion animals compared to other animals. The work paints a picture of speciesism as a pervasive collective truth that is evident in a naturally occurring expression of human psychology–everyday language

We have more talks coming up:

Welcome

Welcome to the website of the Society for the Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations (PHAIR)! We will be announcing new activities, speakers, and debates from September 2021. To receive our updates, please send us your name and email address via phairsociety@gmail.com or subscribe to our website for updates.