31: Attitudes Towards Animals with Matti Wilks (S5)

Episode 1 of Series 5: Children and Other Animals

Why do some some people choose to stop eating meat? Would a child save a dog or a person from a sinking boat? Questions like this are posed by Matti and her colleagues to find out how our moral circles are formed and change into adulthood. The implications towards distant others (culturally and physically) are important. 

Book Recommendation: The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically

Science Daily Article Fearful Great Danes provide new insights to genetic causes of fear

Guest: Matti Wilks is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. Her background is in social and developmental psychology and she is interested in understanding (and overcoming!) psychological barriers to prosocial and ethical behaviour. At the moment, her research focuses on the factors that shape our moral circles, and why some people are so motivated to help distant others. In addition, she studies attitudes towards cultured meat and why we think natural things are good and unnatural things are bad.

www.jonathanbalcombe.com
What a Fish Knows (NYTimes bestseller)
Super Fly (National Outdoor Book Award winner)
Jake and Ava: A Boy and a Fish (illustrated children's book)