Animal portraiture is an artistic form that some artists, educators, and researchers suggest has the potential to change human perceptions, attitudes, and emotions about animals. They envision this type of portraiture as being part of a holistic approach to environmental education because, rather than reinforcing utilitarian viewpoints, this type of artistic representation might encourage respectful perspectives on human/non-human relationships. Moreover, animal portraiture can suggest notions of kinship and individuality, encouraging the idea that non-human animals exhibit similarities to humans and focusing on their characteristics as individuals. Little research has occurred on the effects of animal portraiture on affective and cognitive outcomes, however, and most research has been conducted in free-choice settings (such as museums); little has been conducted in formal settings (such as classrooms).
The researchers conducted this study with pre-university students in Montreal, Canada, and focused on a slideshow designed to activate affective responses to animals. The study's participants enrolled in a literature-related course called, “Human versus Nature?” The study sample of 51 students included 22 males and 28 females; 1 student did not indicate their gender identity. The students, 47% of whom were Canadian, reported being from diverse racial/ ethnic backgrounds. The majority (35) were 18–19 years old, with the range being between 18 and 39 years of age.
The researchers used Personal Meaning Maps (PMMs), which is a research method that explores how participants make meaning of an experience, concept, or idea. The researchers collected data over the course of two days before, during, and after the students watched the slideshow. Before the slideshow, researchers gave each participant a blank sheet of paper with the prompt “Animal” written in the middle. Then, the researchers asked the students to write all thoughts, images, sentences, or words that came to mind in relation to that word. They encouraged the students to elaborate on those words using examples and explanations. Next, the researchers asked students to watch a 6-minute slideshow, which included 31 photographs of animal portraits, mixed with 5 slides of nature poems, and a brief video interview with the animal-portrait artist explaining his artistic method. After the slideshow, the researchers asked the students to review their pre-slideshow PMMs, make amendments, if desired, and elaborate on new concepts or constructs. The researchers provided different colored pens at each step to track changes in comments and descriptors.
To analyze the data, the researchers first identified eight thematic categories emerging from the participants' words in pre- and post-slideshow PMMs: (1) Pets/Symbols, (2) Biological/Wild Nature, (3) Commodity/Resource, (4) Dangerous, (5) Kinship, (6) Sentience/Individuality, (7) Mistreated/Vulnerable, and (8) Free/Majestic. The researchers created two measures within each category. First, the researchers defined breadth as “the proportion of students whose meanings fell into the thematic category pre- and post-slideshow.” Second, they calculated intensity as an aggregate of depth (complexity and detail of descriptors of “Animal”) and emotion (strength and magnitude of the descriptors' attributes); they scored each component (depth and emotion) with 1 to 3 points, leading to intensity scores ranging from 2 to 6 points.
The mapped meanings of “Animal” were different before and after the slideshow for 92% of the students. In terms of breadth, pre-slideshow student meanings mostly landed in the following categories (in order of frequency): Biological/ Wild Nature (100% of students), Pets/Symbols (72.5%), Commodity/Resource (66.6%), Dangerous (58.8%), and Free/Majestic (58.8%). After the slideshow, maps showed statistically significant decreases in the previous top four themes, and significant increases in the mentions of Kinship (+21.6%) and Sentience/Individuality (+19.6%).
The measure of intensity extends these findings. The researchers noted a 202.9% increase in intensity of descriptors for Kinship in post-slideshow PMMs. Examples of participant comments with the highest score on intensity (six points) included: “Animals have families and are part of a bigger system like humans,” and “I saw real human emotion in the eyes and faces of the animal portraits, remind[s] me of real people.” By contrast, the lowest-scoring comments on intensity (two points) were very brief, such as “Similar to us.” Researchers found the second-highest increase in intensity for the theme “Sentience/ Individuality” (78.4%). Comments with the highest scores (six points) in this category included, “Felt like they all have their own personality, not just between species but between individuals,” and “After the slideshow, they seemed a little deeper mentally…” There was a decrease in the intensity of descriptors for “Biological/Wild Nature,” “Pets/Symbols,” “Commodity/Resource,” and “Dangerous.” Finally, researchers noted no change in breadth or intensity for the “Free/Majestic” theme, and there was no evidence that exposure to poems impacted results.
The researchers concluded that the study provides evidence that animal portraiture in a classroom setting can play a role in increasing care for animals, extending prior studies conducted in free-choice or museum environments. The authors call for re-examining the effectiveness of current animal narratives and visual representations. They highlight, for example, that the visual cultures of movements for animal rights and wildlife conservation tend to depict animals as “distant and separate from the human as either a victim or part of a romanticized nature,” and this might be counterproductive. By contrast, the researchers argue that bringing animals into a human frame and representing them as individuals may improve viewers' capacity to relate and empathize with the animals, which could stimulate a desire for animal protection and conservation.
The Bottom Line
Placing non-human animals in a more human frame, through an artistic medium such as portraiture, can help people associate non-human animals with human-like qualities. This study demonstrates that students exposed to animal portraiture may have enhanced perceptions of animal kinship and individuality. Environmental education and conservation professionals who focus on animal protection may wish to consider using creative methods, such as animal portraits and portraiture, in teaching. Such methods might help build empathy toward non-human animals as well as broader ecosystems, and may augment understanding related to species individuality.