The impact of social media on attitudes towards farm animal welfare

Social media may enhance attitude change through social influence, repeated exposure and persuasion, and can easily influence public opinion if uninformed. No current research has identified the effects of social media on attitudes towards farm animal welfare (FAW), despite animal issues being the most posted and discussed non-profit issue on Facebook and Twitter. The identification of effects may benefit producers and organizations and improve FAW, as consumers determine standards; this is particularly relevant due to the potential effects of veganism, Brexit and the growing population. An anonymous survey covering social media use, FAW views and demographics was produced on Google Forms and shared via Facebook, email and Survey Tandem. Responses (n=180) were transferred to Microsoft Excel and SPSS for graphs, mode, Spearman’s rank correlation, Pearson’s chi-square test of independence, and linear-by-linear association, and comments were categorized in Microsoft Word. A Spearman’s rank correlation found a moderate positive correlation between frequency of seeing posts and interest in improving FAW (P=0.001) and most participants saw more negative posts (66.7%). More participants followed or liked animal groups (28.3%) than farming groups (7.8%) and most participants mainly found information through social media posts (43.9%). However, a linear-by-linear association showed no significant association between finding information mainly through social media and FAW familiarity (P=0.062), suggesting those who obtained information this way felt equally knowledgeable. Greater social media presence could increase interest in FAW, especially important for farming groups because of their lower popularity, and positive or educational posts could be more beneficial than negative ones. Moreover, the public should be made aware of issues with relying on social media for information, and of different sources available. Further research could investigate specific social media platforms or other animal welfare contexts.社交媒体可通过社会影响、重复曝光与说服机制强化态度改变；若公众对相关信息缺乏充分认知，社交媒体亦可能轻易左右公众舆论。尽管动物议题是Facebook与Twitter上发帖量与讨论度最高的非营利议题，但当前尚无研究探明社交媒体对公众农场动物福利（farm animal welfare, FAW）态度的影响。 探明此类影响可为生产者与相关组织带来裨益，并助力改善农场动物福利——毕竟消费者的选择决定了行业标准；鉴于纯素主义、英国脱欧与全球人口增长均可能对农场动物福利议题产生相关影响，该研究的现实意义尤为凸显。 本研究依托谷歌表单（Google Forms）搭建了涵盖社交媒体使用情况、农场动物福利认知与人口统计特征的匿名调查问卷，并通过Facebook、电子邮件与Survey Tandem进行推广分享。共回收有效问卷180份（n=180），将数据导入Microsoft Excel与SPSS统计软件，分别用于绘制可视化图表、计算众数、斯皮尔曼等级相关分析、皮尔逊卡方独立性检验以及线性趋势关联分析；同时使用Microsoft Word对开放式评论内容进行分类编码。 分析结果显示：斯皮尔曼等级相关分析表明，接触农场动物福利相关帖文的频率与改善农场动物福利的意愿呈中等程度正相关（P=0.001）；且多数受访者接触到的负面帖文占比更高（66.7%）。相较农场相关群组（7.8%），更多受访者关注或点赞了动物保护群组（28.3%）；且多数受访者主要通过社交媒体帖文获取相关信息（43.9%）。 不过，线性趋势关联分析显示，以社交媒体帖文作为主要信息渠道与个体对农场动物福利的熟悉程度之间未呈现显著关联（P=0.062），这表明通过该渠道获取信息的受访者自感知识储备并无明显差异。 研究表明，强化社交媒体上的相关内容曝光可提升公众对农场动物福利的关注度，鉴于农场相关群组的受众基数更小，该结论对农业相关组织尤为重要；且相较于负面帖文，积极或兼具教育意义的内容或能带来更积极的影响。 此外，应向公众普及依赖社交媒体获取信息存在的信息偏差与局限性，并介绍其他可供选择的正规信息来源。未来研究可针对特定社交媒体平台或其他动物福利相关场景展开进一步探索。