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A study of more than 100 kindergarten-age children suggests kids tend to think of snakes differently than they do other animals and that hearing negative or objectifying language about the slithery reptiles might contribute to that way of thinking.

The study also suggests it takes minimal intervention to “inoculate” a child against snake negativity.

The findings, published in Anthrozoös, are important for multiple reasons, explains co-author Jeff Loucks of Oregon State University.

Snakes are reviled in many human cultures but little is known about how children develop feelings of fear and vilification toward an animal that plays an important role in the balance of many ecosystems.

At least 450 of the more than 4,000 identified snake species are facing elevated risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but public support for protecting them and restoring their habitat is weak – probably because of a general societal hatred of snakes.

“Childhood is a critical time for shaping someone’s attitudes and behaviors toward animals,” Loucks said. “Snakes have a very negative reputation in Western societies and are commonly misunderstood.”

Loucks, professor of teaching in OSU’s College of Liberal Arts, cites earlier research that shows snakes trigger some level of anxiety in 54% of all people and that the average American has a negative attitude toward snakes.

“Data indicate that it’s common for U.S. drivers to go out of their way to run over a snake,” he said.

Loucks and study leader Denée Buchko of the University of Regina sought to find the roots of that antipathy and the roles language and education play in its development. The three-part project involved 5-year-olds, their parents, pictures of snakes and descriptive language that might suggest snakes were more like other animals than inanimate objects or vice-versa.

The scientists used a technique known as an induction task to assess how similar kids think snakes are to humans, to other non-human animals and to non-living things.

“Before we gave them this task, we had parents look through a picture book of snakes with their child, and we also read children a story book about a day in the life of a snake,” Loucks said. “The story book either referred to the snakes more like an object – with ‘it’ pronouns and not referencing feelings or thoughts – or more like a person, with ‘she’ pronouns and references to thoughts and feelings.”

The researchers found that when parents used negative language when talking about snakes, children were encouraged to think about snakes as being different from humans. They also found that the objectifying language in the storybook had the same effect.

“Something unexpected, though, was that kids generally thought that snakes were similar to other non-human animals,” Loucks said. “So, we did a second study with different subjects, took away the picture book and the storybook and just gave kids the induction task. In this case, they did not think that snakes were similar to humans or other animals.”

With another set of subjects, Louck and Buchko brought back the picture book and the storybook, and again they found that kids thought snakes were similar to other animals but not to humans, replicating the findings from the first part of the research.

“It seems as though 5-year-old kids, from Western cultures anyway, tend to think that snakes are very different from other animals, and negative and objectifying language might contribute to that,” Loucks said. “But some exposure to snakes and learning about their biological needs can act as an inoculation against negative attitudes toward snakes, which can help to engender care and respect for these animals.”

This research was supported by a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery grant.

Source: Oregon State University