There's a high-speed bus barreling toward you with no signs of slowing down. Your pet dog and a foreign tourist stand in its path, deer-in-the-headlights style. You can only save one. Which do you choose?
higher for women, at about 45 percent.
The research article, published in the journal Anthrozoos, also found that those who said they would choose their dog over the stranger had several disparate ways to defend their moral judgment. For example, just over 25 percent said that "the tourist should be smart enough to get out of the way," while more than half simply said, "I love my pet."
We can extend empathy to another organism and feel its pain like no other species. But let's not be too proud of ourselves. As this study and too much of our history show, we're pretty selective about how we extend our humaneness to other human beings.
That said, according to the study, only 2 percent of dog owners would choose their dog's life if it meant sacrificing an immediate blood relative.