{
  "abstract": "Attitudes towards socioscientific issues (SSIs) represent crucial learning dispositions, as they can influence the students’ willingness to engage with SSIs. Animal experimentation is a particularly contentious SSI, with attitudes ranging from rejection to acceptance. They are influenced by external factors (e.g., research context, test animal) and internal factors (e.g., knowledge, ethical aspects). Understanding these attitudes is essential for fostering reflective engagement with SSIs in higher education. This study (N = 503) examines self-reported attitudes of pre-service teacher biology students and non-pre-service teacher biology students towards three contexts: animal experimentation with nonhuman primates, animal experimentation with other test animals, and behavioural research with nonhuman primates. It also explores the internal factors underlying these attitudes. Students’ attitudes differed across contexts: animal experimentation with nonhuman primates was viewed most critically, while behavioural research was perceived most favourably. Pre-service teacher students expressed more ambivalent and negative attitudes than non-pre-service teacher students. Regarding internal factors, a clear explanatory pattern emerged: “pro” attitudes were mainly explained by knowledge, “ambivalent” attitudes by conditions (e.g., the necessity of the research), and “contra” attitudes by ethical aspects. Pre-service teacher students consistently explained their attitudes with more references to knowledge than non-pre-service teacher students. These findings highlight the need for evidence-based integration of learning dispositions into science (teacher) higher education that explicitly addresses the SSI animal experimentation.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Biology Education, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany"
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Jacqueline Dischereit"
    },
    {
      "name": "Susanne Bögeholz"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/02gsg1rjexhzq.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0358949",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "02gsg1rjexhzq",
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    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358949",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3304|Science Education and Pedagogy"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive science/Cognitive psychology/Learning/Human learning"
    ],
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      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive science/Cognitive psychology/Reasoning"
    ],
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      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Learning and memory/Learning/Human learning"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Organisms/Eukaryota/Animals/Vertebrates/Amniotes/Mammals/Primates"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Animal behavior"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Learning/Human learning"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Reasoning"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Psychological attitudes"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Zoology/Animal behavior"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Zoology/Animals/Vertebrates/Amniotes/Mammals/Primates"
    ],
    [
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      "/People and places/Population groupings/Educational status/Undergraduates"
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      "/People and places/Population groupings/Professions/Teachers"
    ],
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      "plos",
      "/Science policy/Research integrity/Research ethics"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Animal behavior"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Learning/Human learning"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Reasoning"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Psychological attitudes"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7222716967",
  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358949&type=printable",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-16",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/02gsg1rjexhzq.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:23Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0358949",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358949"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    },
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:animal behavior",
      "subfield": "zoology-behaviour"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Learning dispositions as a lens for teaching socioscientific issues: Attitudes of university biology students towards animal experimentation",
  "title_text": "Learning dispositions as a lens for teaching socioscientific issues: Attitudes of university biology students towards animal experimentation",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:23Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/02gsg1rjexhzq",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}