ABSTRACT Across a 15-year period, annual cohorts of first-year veterinary science students (n = 1,380; 77% female) at a British university completed the Belief in Animal Sentience (BiAS) questionnaire, in which they reported their beliefs about the sentience (capacity to feel) of ten species: dogs, cats, lions, pigs, sheep, rats, rabbits, chickens, bees, and spiders. On the basis of previous findings regarding people’s beliefs about animals’ capacities for mind, it was hypothesized that female students would ascribe more human-like sentience to animals than would male students. It was also hypothesized that the proportion of female students in each of the cohorts studied would have an influence on the beliefs of the year group as a whole: cohorts comprising a larger percentage of women would have higher animal sentience beliefs in both males and females. The data were analyzed using two-level regression models to concurrently investigate the effects of individual respondents’ gender and the percentage of female students in their cohort. Compared with their male counterparts, female veterinary students across all the cohorts studied attributed significantly higher (more human-like) sentience to each of the ten animals listed in the BiAS questionnaire, but the percentage of female students in each year group was not associated with students’ sentience beliefs. It was also found that childhood experience of having owned pet cats or dogs was related to students’ beliefs about the sentience of these species, although this association did not contribute to the differences found between male and female respondents. Given the increasing number of women entering the veterinary profession, and previous findings that beliefs about animals’ capacities for sentience may be associated with the veterinary care they are given, we conclude that gender differences in sentience beliefs could have a significant impact on the future of veterinary practice and patient welfare.

中文翻译：

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兽医学生对动物感觉的信念：性别扮演什么角色？

摘要 在 15 年的时间里，英国大学一年级兽医科学专业的学生（n = 1,380；77% 为女性）完成了动物感知信念 (BiAS) 问卷调查，在问卷中他们报告了他们对动物感知的信念（感觉能力）十种：狗、猫、狮子、猪、羊、老鼠、兔子、鸡、蜜蜂和蜘蛛。根据之前关于人们对动物思维能力的信念的研究结果，假设女学生比男学生更愿意将动物的感觉归因于动物。还假设所研究的每个队列中的女学生比例会对整个年级的信念产生影响：女性占较大比例的群体对男性和女性的动物感知信念都较高。使用两级回归模型分析数据，同时调查个别受访者的性别及其队列中女学生百分比的影响。与男性同行相比，所有研究队列中的女兽医学生对 BiAS 问卷中列出的十只动物中的每只动物都具有更高（更像人类）的感觉，但每年组中女学生的百分比与学生的情感信念。还发现童年时期拥有宠物猫或狗的经历与学生对这些物种感知能力的信念有关，尽管这种关联并没有造成男性和女性受访者之间的差异。鉴于越来越多的女性进入兽医行业，以及之前的研究结果表明，动物感知能力的信念可能与她们接受的兽医护理有关，我们得出结论，感知信念的性别差异可能对动物的未来产生重大影响。兽医实践和患者福利。