Research shows that humans form relationships with animals that alter social, psychological and biological processes. However, within environmental decision-making and social psychological research, the importance of human-animal relationships has not been thoroughly explored. This dissertation extends social distance theories to include human-animal relationships and utilizes environmental values, particularly altruism, in a causal chain to assess how individuals perceive the risk high volume horizontal drilling hydraulic fracturing (HVHHF) poses to animals. HVHHF is an ideal lens to investigate this topic because this technology puts animals at substantial risk of harm and creates environments that simultaneously affect humans and animals. In Chapter 1 I conduct a thorough content analysis of peer-reviewed HVHHF articles to examine how animals and human-animal relationships are represented. The analysis demonstrates that existing research seldom acknowledges animals' inherent value, instead focusing almost exclusively on the use of animals as sentinels for potential human health risks. Furthermore, there are no social science articles assessing the impacts of HVHHF on animals or human-animal relationships. This chapter serves as a call for additional research. I use Chapters 2 and 3 to respond to this call, exploring the social and psychological drivers of perceptions of the risk HVHHF poses to humans and animals. In Chapter 2 I use an experimental survey design to extend construal level theory of psychological distance (CLT) to interspecies relationships and test whether social distance between species influences human perceptions of HVHHF risk to animals. Multivariate regression results show that framing HVHHF risk in terms of animals can alter perceptions of HVHHF risk to animals, but that framing risk across different animal groups has varied impacts. This study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the risk literature by demonstrating the importance of including interspecies relationships in CLT. It also has practical implications for organizations interested in gaining public support for policies that address HVHHF harms to animals. Chapter 3 picks up where Chapter 2 leaves off, continuing to investigate how people perceive the risk HVHHF poses to animals. I draw on the environmental values literature (focusing on altruism) to evaluate the causal link between values and perception of risk to animals. The results from structural equation modeling and logistic regression, show that those who adhere to altruistic values (both towards animals and the biosphere) perceive higher risks of hydraulic fracturing to all species. However, decreased social distance between humans and companion animals mediates this relationship, suggesting that decreased social distance in human-animal relationships is an extension of altruism. The findings have important implications for understanding how human-animal relationships influence risk perceptions and for environmental and animal rights movements pursuing policies that promote animal wellbeing. Finally, in the conclusion I connect my findings, address avenues for future research, and discuss policy implications.
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