While previous work demonstrated that animals are categorised based on their edibility, little research has systematically evaluated the role of religion in the perception of animal edibility, particularly when specific animals are deemed sacred in a religion. In two studies, we explored a key psychological mechanism through which sacred animals are deemed inedible by members of a faith: mind attribution. In Study 1, non-vegetarian Hindus in Singapore (N = 70) evaluated 19 animals that differed in terms of their sacredness and edibility. Results showed that participants categorised animals into three groups: holy animals (high sacredness but low edibility), food animals (low sacredness but high edibility) and neutral animals (low sacredness and low edibility). Holy animals were deemed to possess greater mental life compared to other animal categories. In Study 2, we replicated this key finding with Hindus in India (N = 100), and further demonstrated that the observed pattern of results was specific to Hindus but not Muslims (N = 90). In both studies, mind attribution mediated the negative association between sacredness and edibility. Our findings illustrate how religious groups diverge in animal perception, thereby highlighting the role of mind attribution as a crucial link between sacredness and edibility.

中文翻译：

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注意你的肉：动物社会认知中的宗教差异

虽然之前的工作表明动物是根据其可食用性进行分类的，但很少有研究系统地评估宗教在动物可食用性感知中的作用，特别是当特定动物在宗教中被视为神圣时。在两项研究中，我们探索了一种关键的心理机制，通过这种机制，宗教成员认为神圣动物不可食用：心理归因。在研究 1 中，新加坡的非素食印度教徒（N = 70）评估了 19 种在神圣性和可食用性方面不同的动物。结果显示，参与者将动物分为三组：神圣动物（高神圣性但低可食性）、食用动物（低神圣性但高可食用性）和中性动物（低神圣性和低可食用性）。与其他动物类别相比，神圣动物被认为具有更大的精神生活。在研究 2 中，我们在印度的印度教徒（N = 100）中复制了这一关键发现，并进一步证明观察到的结果模式特定于印度教徒，而非穆斯林（N = 90）。在这两项研究中，心灵归因调节了神圣性和可食用性之间的负面关联。我们的研究结果说明了宗教团体如何在动物感知上产生分歧，从而突出了心灵归因作为神圣性和可食用性之间关键联系的作用。