Sociology plays a key role in empathy development, which is central to addressing complex social problems. However, little is known about what types of courses work best to enhance empathy. In parallel, sociological animal studies (SAS) has evolved as a relatively new subfield focused on assessing human and animal relationships. SAS research suggests that our interactions with animals enhance empathy development. Combining these literatures, we assess if SAS compared to non-SAS courses impact affective and cognitive empathy for humans and animals differently. Findings reveal that students who take SAS courses demonstrate greater postcourse human and animal empathy even when controlling for precourse levels of empathy and other factors that drive empathy development. Although SAS remains on the periphery of the discipline, this study suggests that it should be a central component of the sociological curriculum.

中文翻译：

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社会学动物研究课程比以人类为中心的社会学课程在增强同理心方面更有效

社会学在同理心发展中发挥着关键作用，这对于解决复杂的社会问题至关重要。然而，对于哪些类型的课程最能增强同理心，人们知之甚少。与此同时，社会学动物研究（SAS）已发展成为一个相对较新的子领域，专注于评估人类和动物的关系。SAS 研究表明，我们与动物的互动可以增强同理心的发展。结合这些文献，我们评估 SAS 课程与非 SAS 课程相比是否对人类和动物的情感和认知同理心产生不同的影响。研究结果表明，即使在控制课前同理心水平和其他推动同理心发展的因素的情况下，参加 SAS 课程的学生在课后也表现出更强的人类和动物同理心。尽管 SAS 仍然处于该学科的边缘，但这项研究表明它应该成为社会学课程的核心组成部分。