Public beliefs about farm animal sentience directly influence consumer behaviour, policy support, and social licence for animal agriculture.
Public attitudes toward farm animal sentience are not static facts but malleable beliefs shaped by culture, experience, and information. The systematic attribution of lower sentience to farmed species than companion animals — often called the meat paradox — reflects motivated reasoning rather than scientific reality. Chickens demonstrate complex social cognition, pigs solve problems at a level comparable to dogs, and fish have pain systems structurally analogous to mammals. Communication strategies that bridge the gap between public assumption and scientific knowledge — particularly those that present individual animals with specific names, histories, and personalities — shift attitudes and downstream behaviour. Policy-makers who understand that public sentience beliefs are educable rather than fixed will invest in science communication as a welfare lever alongside regulatory and market interventions.