{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T05:17:50Z","timestamp":1787807870510,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,25]],"date-time":"2026-08-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787616000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"German federal ministry of agriculture, food and local identity"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04jw21793","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"German Parliament"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03pgn2579","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Federal Office for Agriculture and Food","award":["FKZ 28N1800022"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FKZ 28N1800022"]}]},{"award":["FKZ 28N1800022"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FKZ 28N1800022"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01526pb12","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100023758","name":"South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100023758","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04t5phd24","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Farm animal welfare research increasingly recognizes that farmers\u2019 welfare decisions are shaped by ethical orientations. This study examines associations between livestock farmers\u2019 contextual anthropocentrism, personality traits, farm structural characteristics, and links to animal welfare attitudes. Survey data from 619 German livestock farmers were analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlations, and an ordinary least squares regression model. An anthropocentric orientation index (AOI) showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach\u2019s alpha = 0.72; mean = 3.68 on a 1\u20135 scale). Higher emotionality, agreeableness, and openness were negatively associated with anthropocentric orientation. Organic farming, keeping of suckling cows, dairy cows, and laying hens were also negatively associated with anthropocentric orientations. The model explained a modest share of variance (R2 = 0.147; adjusted R2 = 0.119). Correlations indicated that higher anthropocentric orientations were more closely aligned with appreciation of biological functioning indicators and less aligned with positive welfare indicators, including species-typical behavior and natural outdoor access. The findings indicate tentatively that contextual anthropocentrism among livestock farmers might be operationalized empirically and might be linked to personality, farm structure, and welfare interpretation. Future research should show if contextual anthropocentrism may inform more differentiated animal welfare communication that accounts for farmers\u2019 distinct ethical and practical animal welfare orientations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16172666","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,25]],"date-time":"2026-08-25T09:04:30Z","timestamp":1787648670000},"page":"2666","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Contextual Anthropocentrism and Animal Welfare Attitudes Among German Livestock Farmers: Evidence from Survey Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7485-2383","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marcus","family":"Mergenthaler","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agriculture, South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, 59494 Soest, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Iris","family":"Schr\u00f6ter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agriculture, South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, 59494 Soest, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Andrews, K., Birch, J., Sebo, J., and Sims, T. 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