Research

Behavioural attitudes

Our team includes psychological and behavioural sciences experts, who will investigate how humans think, feel and act towards other animals.

• We will employ rigorous research methods to investigate themes, attitudes and knowledge about animal welfare across the industry and different species – and ultimately, how this can translate into demonstrable change.
• Collaborating with the LSE Behavioural Lab, our work will seek to identify the patterns and trends behind human attitudes and behaviours. This understanding will help us to identify effective behavioural nudges towards more ethically-informed choices in everyday decisions effecting animal welfare – such as choice of pet-food – meat, or a plant-based lab-grown alternative.

This groundbreaking research will help to move the public from indifference to more informed decision-making, making the world a better place for all sentient beings.

Invertebrate sentience

Our research builds upon earlier work led by Professor Jonathan Birch and his teams, which explore the debate over the nature of sentience and criterion for its attribution to non-human animals. Amongst this work is the Foundations of Animal Sentience (ASENT) project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and Birch’s Open Access book, The Edge of Sentience, which makes a case for extending welfare protections to a wide range of invertebrates – such as insects and crustaceans - on a precautionary basis.

This work has already informed policy change. Commissioned and funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the team produced a review of the evidence of sentience in cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans, which helped to shape the UK’s Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, recognising octopuses, crabs, lobsters and shrimps as sentient beings. We seek to build on this momentum, continuing to inform ethical policy and practice for all sentient beings.

In addition, we are collaborating with insect expert Professor Lars Chittka at Queen Mary, University of London, who is leading experiments into the behaviour of flies – do they display the same behaviours as bees, whom we more closely attribute sentience to? And if so, what does this mean for policy, regulation and industry standards? We look forward to publishing the results of this work and subsequent collaborations with relevant industries, to drive scientifically informed ethical codes of practice.

Animals and AI

As the use of AI rapidly expands, we strive to ensure that nonhuman animals are not forgotten. Our Centre Director, Professor Birch, is already leading the conversation, having published an article highlighting the dangers of automated AI in farming operations, along with a set of guiding principles for regulation. Our ongoing work seeks to expand upon this, clarifying the ethical basis of the principles and broadening the range of animals considered, including wild, companion and farmed animals.

Key to this priority area will be systematic consultations with a wide range of stakeholders including policymakers, tech developers, animal advocates and the representatives from the animal agricultural sector. We aim to understand which principles these groups would endorse and develop a code of practice to reflect a shared commitment to responsible use of AI in relation to animals.

Our goal is to make real-world impact. We aim to translate our research into user-friendly resources, including accessible guides to help regulators, industries and advocates apply ethical principles in everyday actions.