BackgroundThe origin of different human emotions directed towards animals (whether in the utilitarian, affective, conflictual, or cosmological context) is strongly influenced by sociocultural factors, although our genetic predispositions also play an important role in the origin of these emotions. Such emotions guide people’s representations of different species, which in turn affect their attitudes toward them. For this reason, understanding the factors that guide such attitudes becomes a key element in making conservationist decisions. In this sense, the main objective of this study was to analyze how sociocultural characteristics and bioecological representations can influence students’ attitudes of empathy or antipathy towards vertebrate species; as well as which classes and species are related to greater and lesser support in people for their conservation.MethodsTo do so, 667 interviews were conducted with students from urban (n = 1) and rural (n = 2) schools in the Brazilian semi-arid region. We used mixed generalized linear models (GLMM) to examine the effect of social factors and bioecological representations on empathy and antipathy attitudes and multiple factor analysis (MFA) to examine the relationship between the biological characteristics of the animals (positive or negative) and the attitudes toward them (antipathetic or empathetic).ResultsThrough GLMM, we found that students from the urban area and from lower school levels are more extreme in their responses, more frequently expressing both empathy and antipathy towards wild animals. Regarding gender, women had a higher frequency of responses associated with aversion than men for species perceived as dangerous and poisonous (p< 0.001). Through the MFA, we found greater support (empathy) for the conservation of fish species (31.56%), birds (29.37%) and mammals (25.94%), with emphasis on the Red-cowled cardinal (Paroaria dominicana) and clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) species, and less support (antipathy) for reptile and amphibian species such as rattlesnakes (Crotalus durissus) and horned frogs (Ceratophrys joazeirensis).ConclusionsThe attitudinal ambivalence reflected by varying empathy for certain species and antipathy to others has important implications for wildlife conservation. Understanding the socioeconomic factors and emotions that influence attitudes towards animals can enable integrating educational strategies for the conservation of species, especially those which are culturally important.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13002-023-00593-5.