CONFERENCE INTERNATIONALE SUR LE DROIT DES ANIMAUX AU LUXEMBOURG DU 12 AU 15 SEPTEMBRE

Animal advocacy is a science: What psychology and research can teach us about persuading the public on animal issues

Nick Cooney

SOURCE  Should animal advocates use graphic images of animals suffering, or cute pictures of happy animals, in trying to get their message across? What simple techniques make people twice as likely to donate or volunteer their time to help animals? What messages have been shown to be most effective in persuading people to move toward vegan eating? While we don`t often think of it this way, getting people to make animal-friendly choices is a science. Decades of published research make clear that certain approaches will work better than others, and our assumptions about what works best are often wrong. The hundreds of studies conducted on vegetarian eating also give us unique insight into how we can be more effective at persuading people to stop eating meat. In this presentation we`ll answer the questions posed above and others like them, and share key lessons from the research that will make our animal advocacy work more effective.