The effect of narratives on attitudes toward animal welfare and pro-social behaviour on behalf of animals: Three pre-registered experiments

We report three randomised and pre-registered experiments examining the effects of narrative fiction (vs. non-fiction vs. expository non-fiction) on concern for animal welfare. In Experiment 1a (N = 363) there was no significant increase in welfare or willingness to donate an charity among participants who read a text about monkey's plight texts monkey). 1b =121) greater after reading compared unrelated animals. 2 =184) employed simplified design more severe depiction abuse, but showed beneficial effect animals) either measure. 3 =290) monkey lizard; text, irrespective depicted, reported welfare, lizard nature text). However, were willing condition. These results suggest that animal's has limited