The unconscious victim was found with a broken leg and multiple lacerations.
Does that sentence garner more empathy from you if the victim is a human or a dog? In a study published in the journal “Society & Animals,” researchers presented people with a fake newspaper story but tested switching out the victim, using a 1-year-old infant, a 30-year-old adult, a puppy or a 6-year-old adult dog, The Times reported.
“Respondents were significantly less distressed when adult humans were victimized, in comparison with human babies, puppies and adult dogs,” the study found. “Only relative to the infant victim did the adult dog receive lower scores of empathy.”
Glenn talked about the new study on today’s show along with older research from a nonprofit fighting muscular dystrophy. Harrison’s Fund found in 2015 that people were more likely to click on an ad asking for £5 to save a dog from a “slow, painful death” than to save a child.
“Irritatingly but unsurprisingly the dog ad was clicked on twice as much as the one featuring my beautiful son,” Alex Smith, dad to Harrison, who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, wrote about the test campaign.
To see more from Glenn, visit his channel on TheBlaze and listen live to “The Glenn Beck Radio Program” with Glenn Beck and Stu Burguiere weekdays 9 a.m.–noon ET on TheBlaze Radio Network.
BlazeTV Staff
