Animal Emotions

Do animals think and feel?

by Marc Bekoff

Chimpanzees and Meerkats: The Importance Of Accurate Media

Media plays an important role in how we (mis)perceive other animals

Published on October 24, 2011 by Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. in Animal Emotions

Animals are "in". It's difficult to pick up a newspaper or magazine (for those who still pick them up) and not see something about the amazing animals with whom we share our one and only precious planet. Two recent studies of how endangered chimpanzees are portrayed show clearly that media can influence how animals are perceived (see also and). The first, by Stephen Ross and his colleagues, shows "the public is less likely to think that chimpanzees are endangered compared to other great apes, and that this is likely the result of media misportrayals in movies, television and advertisements." Their detailed study demonstrated "that those viewing a photograph of a chimpanzee with a human standing nearby were 35.5% more likely to consider wild populations to be stable/healthy compared to those seeing the exact same picture without a human. Likewise, the presence of a human in the photograph increases the likelihood that they consider chimpanzees as appealing as a pet. We also found that respondents seeing images in which chimpanzees are shown in typically human settings (such as an office space) were more likely to perceive wild populations as being stable and healthy compared to those seeing chimpanzees in other contexts. These findings shed light on the way that media portrayals of chimpanzees influence public attitudes about this important and endangered species."

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Another study, conducted by Kara Schroepfer and her colleagues also discovered that the use of chimpanzees in commercials negatively distorts the public perception of chimpanzees regarding their conservation status and that this distortion can hinder conservation efforts (see also). These two studies should serve as a warning that responsible media is essential for communicating who other animals really are and how their lives are in peril. I feel confident that when other studies are done for animals who aren't as charismatic or as closely related to us the same sort of discoveries will be made. These two studies can serve as models for what needs to be done on a wider scale especially because most people don't have the opportunity to see wild animals first-hand and many really don't understand how close they are to disappearing forever.

Chimpanzees and other great apes are very smart and emotional beings. That's a no-brainer for most people although chimpanzees are still used in horrific invasive research but more and more support is forthcoming to stop it once and for all. However, as we study other animals we see they too are smart and emotional and their cognitive capacites rival those of our closest relatives. For example, a very interesting study shows just how clever meerkats can be, for those who don't already know them from Meerkat Manor. Simon Townsend and his colleagues have recently demonstrated that wild meerkats recognize other meerkats by their voices. So, just when we think that we and our non-human primate cousins are cognitively gifted and separate from other animals we see we're really not. This story about meerkats is an example of how media should report on the behavior of other animals, accurate and to the point.

I concluded in a recent essay, "The time has come to debunk the myth of human exceptionalism once and for all. It's a hollow, shallow, and self-serving perspective on who we are. Of course we are exceptional in various arenas as are other animals. Perhaps we should replace the notion of human exceptionalism with species exceptionalism, a move that will force us to appreciate other animals for who they are, not who or what we want them to be." Media plays an essential role in doing just this.