Cognitive Dissonance in Laboratory Animal Medicine and Implications for Animal Welfare

Abstract

People experience cognitive dissonance when they entertain 2 conflicting ideas at the same time. Cognitive dissonance may cause a negative emotional state, which can lead to engagement of compensation mechanisms to resolve the conflict. Here we describe a survey that explores cognitive dissonance in laboratory animal veterinarians and veterinary technicians and various ways in which veterinary staff manage dissonance associated with research animal use. Respondents—164 veterinarians and 145 veterinary technicians—were asked to rate their opinions of various statements on a sliding scale of 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree' or 'never' to 'always.' Statements assessed negative emotions (discomfort, powerlessness, frustration) and compensation mechanisms (devaluing, emotional distancing, shifting responsibility) as bases for inferring effects on welfare states of animals. Responses were evaluated overall and were compared according to level of training (veterinarian compared with veterinary technician), years of work experience (0 to 5, 6 to 10, greater than 10), and species tended (large, mixed, small species). Respondents strongly agreed that animal wellbeing and animal use in research were important. Respondents reported feelings of discomfort, powerlessness, and frustration associated with work. In addition, respondents reported feeling empowered to initiate changes affecting animal welfare. The most frequent compensation mechanism noted was shifting responsibility onto the IACUC and institutional rules. Devaluing the animals was another reported compensation mechanism. Responses to emotional distancing statements were divided. Survey responses supported the existence of cognitive dissonance associated with laboratory animal medicine. Potential negative and positive effects on animal welfare are discussed.

Environmental Enrichment for Rats and Mice Housed in Laboratories: A Metareview

“…Additionally, 95% of lab animal veterinarians surveyed in a recent study rated mouse welfare as acceptable to excellent in current conditions [ 148 ], so motivation to advocate for housing refinements may be low. In another study, most lab animal veterinarians and technicians agreed that institutional rules or regulations were sufficient to ensure quality of life for animals, and indicated that it was the responsibility of the animal ethics committee to address animal welfare concerns [ 149 ].…”

Psychological stress and strain in laboratory animal professionals – a systematic review

“…Mental health issues among laboratory animal professionals (LAP), such as veterinarians, scientists, technicians or caregivers, recently gained increasing attention in the scientific literature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] and at academic conferences. [11][12][13] LAP often are passionate of taking care of others, in terms of either the experimental animals themselves or the patients that might benefit from biomedical research.…”

“…[14][15][16][17][18] However, the daily routine of LAPs regularly requires causing or tolerating pain, suffering and distress in the study animals. This discrepancy between taking care of and tolerating or inducing harm in the same animals can lead to cognitive dissonance, psychological stress and strain, 1,15,18,19 which potentially influences proper animal care 1,6,16 and, thus, the outcome of scientific projects. 20,21 In addition, absences and high staff turnover due to psychological strain can have long-term consequences on the facility's organizational and economic situation.…”

Educational use of animals in Europe indicates a reluctance to implement alternatives

“…These are all examples of desensitization-related phenomena. They are actually psychological adaptations to 'cognitive dissonance'a discordance between behaviour and beliefs (Engel et al, 2020;Pirrone et al, 2019). In this case, the behaviour is harmful educational animal use, and the belief is that animals are sentient and should not be harmed.…”