Updated May 9, 2025 at 2:45pm PT: Recording now available to watch on-demand!
Maddie's® Insights is our ongoing webcast series with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. Our guest speaker for the May 8th program is @Rachel Morrison, PhD, Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
We hope you can join us on Thursday, May 8th at 12n Pacific / 2p Central / 3p Eastern for a one-hour webcast. It will be recorded.
REGISTER HERE https://maddies.fund/MIwebcastsRegister
This webcast explores how social media content influences engagement with posts about adoptable animals. It highlights findings from a study analyzing Facebook posts from rural shelters, examining how features like photo style, video content, text tone, and animal type impact likes and shares. The study also compares pre-pandemic (2019) and post-pandemic (2020) data, revealing that 2019 posts received more likes, while 2020 posts were shared more. Results suggest that both the type of animal and its depicted environment affect engagement, although further research is needed to link post content directly to adoption rates.
Attendees will learn about:
1. the online promotion of adoptable animals and the features that have previously been linked to increased adoptions
2. using social media platforms to increase public engagement of adoptable animals. Specifically, what features of post content may have an influence
3. questions that have yet to be answered. Topics of future exploration will be suggested.
Earn continuing education credit from The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement towards 1.0 CAWA CEs. This webinar has also been pre-approved for 1.0 continuing education credits by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA). It has also been approved for 1 hour of continuing education credit in jurisdictions which recognize RACE approval. Complete the quiz to earn continuing education credit.
About the speaker
Rachel Morrison, PhD, Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Dr. Rachel Morrison received her B.S. in Biology with a concentration in animal biology and a minor in Psychology from Grand Valley State University (Allendale, MI). She received her M.A. in Psychology with a certification in Animal Behavior and Conservation from Hunter College of CUNY and her Ph.D. in Psychology with a concentration in Biopsychology from The Graduate Center of CUNY (New York, NY). Dr. Morrison is currently an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke where she teaches Introductory Psychology, Research Methodology, Animal Cognition and Behavior, and Biopsychology.
Dr. Morrison's research interests include animal behavior, animal cognition, animal welfare, and human-animal relationships. She has conducted research with diverse species in multiple locations and contexts including field research, lab studies, and studies of animals housed in zoological (e.g., whispering in cotton-top tamarin monkeys) and aquarium (e.g., the development of mirror self-recognition in bottlenose dolphins) settings. In addition, Dr. Morrison has investigated factors that influence college students' attitudes towards animal use and the relationship between pro-welfare attitudes and perceptions of animal thinking, as well as links between college student pet attachment and the quality of care given to pets. More recently she has explored the use of social media (i.e., Facebook) by local animal shelters to promote adoptable animals and the impact of a miniature horse-assisted intervention on college student mood and optimism.
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Alison Gibson
Media Projects Manager
Maddie's Fund
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