Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine the relationship between humans and animals as a function of 'power' and explicitly whether the concept of authoritarianism is relevent for furthering this understanding.

Paper long abstract:

Human animal relations are often characterised by power and control. However, these are not unique to relationship with non-animals; there is a wealth of psychological literature which has examined a range of attitudes and personalities associated with the same behaviours between humans. The well established concept of authoritarianism is one such example and this paper will report on some empirical data collected to explore this theory of human relations in the context of attitudes towards animals. The findings suggest that prejudice and control are two central features and concludes with some tentative suggestions about how to tackle these issues under the rubric of improving the treatment of animals by humans.