The Roles of Language in Childrens Snake Aversion and Categorization

Date
2019-08
Authors
Buchko, Denee
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Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina
Abstract

Snake aversion and vilification is widespread in human society, but does not reflect the danger that snakes typically pose to humans. Recent research indicates that snake aversion is likely not innate, but somehow learned. Language used to describe atypical animals often differs than language used to describe more typical animals. Parents are also more likely to use prohibitive language such as “Don’t get too close to that!” when referring to snakes but not to other animals like hamsters (even when the animal is enclosed). Since the language used to describe animals has been shown to change the way that children feel about and categorize them, this study examined how language affects young children’s snake aversion as well as their categorization of snakes as compared to other animals. The results of this study show that parent language, particularly objectifying and negative language about snakes, affected children’s categorization of humans and other animals when snakes were used as the basis for comparison. Children, showed a human exclusive pattern when performing judgements in induction tasks when human was not the base animal. Similar to results from other studies, younger children reported less aversion toward snakes than older children. Results also showed that an objectifying storybook about snakes slightly increased 3- year-old children’s reported aversion to snakes. Overall the language used about snakes, both objectifying and negative, seems to affect the way children conceptualize them and perhaps even how they feel about them. This helps to identify new factors (language) associated with children’s conceptualization of animals, and brings attention to a potential sensitive period of learning for children in regards to animal conceptualization. This could lead to better potential education surrounding atypical animals.

Description
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Experimental & Applied Psychology,, University of Regina. vi, 54 p
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