Individual perception of bees: Between perceived danger and willingness to protect

Abstract

The current loss of biodiversity has found its way into the media. Especially the loss of bees as pollinators has recently received much attention aiming to increase public awareness about the consequence of pollinator loss and strategies for protection. However, pollinating insects like bees often prompt considerable anxiety. Negative emotions such as fear and disgust often lead to lack of support for conservation and appropriate initiatives for protection. Our study monitored perceptions of bees in the contexts of conservation and danger bees possibly represent by applying a semantic differential using contrasting adjectives under the heading “I think bees are…”. Additionally, open questions were applied to examine individual perceptions of danger and conservation of bees. Respondents were students from primary school, secondary school and university. We compared these novices (n = 499) to experts (beekeepers, n = 153). An exploratory factor analysis of the semantic differential responses yielded three major oblique factors: Interest, Danger and Conservation & Usefulness. The inter-correlations of these factors were significant. Although all subgroups showed an overall high willingness to protect bees, the perception of danger scored medium. The individual experience of bee stings was the most prevalent reason for expressing fear. Educational programs focusing on pollinator conservation may reduce the perceived danger through removing misinformation, and supporting interest in the species. Based on the overall positive attitude toward bees, we suggest introducing bees (e.g., Apis mellifera) as a flagship species for pollinator conservation.

Crop Pollination in Small-Scale Agriculture in Tanzania: Household Dependence, Awareness and Conservation

“…Pests, fertilizers, and lack of good quality seeds were reported as the main pressing problems leading to decline in agriculture production. The level of education or type of crops grown did not seem to play a role in pollination awareness as reported by other studies [61][62][63]. The few farmers aware of pollinators seemed to have acquired this information from agriculture training programs or from other farmers.…”

Farmers’ Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Pollination and Bees in a Maize-Producing Region of Zimbabwe: Implications for Pollinator Conservation

“…Furthermore, respondents who had prior knowledge of people who were killed by bees had a higher probability of being afraid of bees than those who did not have prior knowledge of bee killings. This is expected, as fear is influenced by previous knowledge and experiences (Rachman, 1977;Sch€ onfelder & Bogner, 2017). However, it is also interesting to note that respondents who knew people who were killed by bees were far less than those who had heard of bee killings which may suggest that some of the hearsay may not be substantiated or could be exaggerated yet strongly influencing fear of bees.…”

A botanic garden as a tool to combine public perception of nature and life-science investigations on native/exotic plants interactions with local pollinators

“…Similar studies, that provide information on compatibility between ornamentals and pollinator sustainability [i.e. 22,23,24], perfectly match the increased apprehension about dramatic pollinator's losses [25,26,27,28] that recently also reached the wide public [29].…”