There is little research about how visitors to zoos and aquariums respond emotionally to the animals they experience. The research that does exist has seldom been informed by current psychological literature on affect, which examines the nature and roles of sentiments, moods, emotions, and affective traits. Emotion is multidimensional: it focuses on a person's core goals; directs attention and interest; arouses the body for action; and integrates social group and cultural factors. It is thus a central component of meaning-making. This article provides an overview of the literature on emotion as it applies to human emotional responses to animals.Informed by this literature, this paper presents results from a research study conducted at a zoo. Subjects (279 adults) were each electronically paged once while viewing one of three zoo animals (snake, okapi, or gorilla). Subjects completed scales on 17 specific emotions, seven items measuring evaluation and arousal, and other scales and responses to the animal. Four patterns of emotions emerged, ranging from "equal opportunity" emotions to "highly selective" emotions. The variables that were most important in influencing emotions were not demographic ones, but the kind of animal, subject's emotionality, relation to the animal, and other items predicted by emotion theory. Implications for biophilia, conservation, and the study of emotional responses to animals are discussed.

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Society’s relations to animals pose possible blind spots in sociological theory that may be revealed and illuminated by studying systems of human‐animal interaction. By investigating whether and how animals enter into key processes that shape self and society we may determine the ways in which animals might be included in the core subject matter of sociology. An earlier discussion of the role of animals in sociology initiated by Weber is reviewed. Issues that debate raised about the extent of linguistically‐mediated human‐animal intersubjectivity are updated. It is in principle difficult to rule out animal languages, and some animals have acquired human language. But sociology may follow a more fecund empirical route by examining successful human‐animal performances produced by enduring interspecies relationships. Following this route, this paper specifically argues that the human self should be seen to take root in the available mixed species community. To show this, the work of G.H. Mead is revisited and corrected in light of recent work on early human development, and conceptual analyses of language, the body, and the self. The formation of the self is not dependent on only linguistic exchanges; a nonverbal nonhuman other can contribute to the self‐reflective sense of being a human self. Based on this reasoning, examples of studies of humans with wild and domestic animals illustrate the potential for a human‐animal sociology.

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Children's spontaneous understandings of animals' needs were investigated to determine how they develop and how they contribute to values underlying environmental care. Children of ages 4 to 14 (n ϭ 171) were interviewed as they drew a favorite animal and what it needs. Certain types of understanding regarding physiological, ecological and conservation needs are described elsewhere (Myers et al., under review). In this article, we present qualitative and quantitative analyses of three additional ways that some children thought about animals' needs, which involved aesthetic, anthropomorphic, and psycho-social dimensions. The aesthetic orientation is shown by concern about animals' bodily coherence, and about the completeness and wholeness of its surroundings. The anthropomorphic framework, which characterized some less-experienced children, contains the important feature of awareness of the other's similarity to the self. This awareness attains more accurate and nuanced expression in the third conception, the psycho-social. Children typifying this latter view emphasized the subjective experience of the animal, and/or its need for companions. Both aesthetic and psycho-social conceptions were related to objective ecological needs. More importantly, all three conceptions are fundamental to the value components of biocentric environmental care. Curricula could help children of all ages be more aware of, articulate about, and able to balance these values. The perception of what animals need is a rich nexus for environmental education.