Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and
Primary School Students’ Attitudes
Toward and Knowledge about
Snakes

Tomažič, Iztok

doi:10.12973/ejmste/75194

Cited by 25 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(31 reference statements)

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“…In comparison, Prokop and Tunnicliffe (2008) found the effect of knowledge only on the attitudes toward non-feared animals (bats), but not phobia-related animals such as spiders. The authors argued that public awareness is not enough to improve attitudes toward animals that were associated with danger in human evolutionary history, and Tomažič (2011) found that knowledge of snakes does not affect fear of these animals. However, biologically educated people do not necessarily need to have a higher knowledge than non-biologists (Tomažič, 2011), and it is thus possible that it was rather their higher experience with live animals that affected the scores (Ballouard et al, 2012).…”

Section: Contribution Of Fear and Disgust To Snake Fearmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional Reaction to Fear- and Disgust-Evoking Snakes: Sensitivity and Propensity in Snake-Fearful Respondents

et al. 2020

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This paper continues our previous study in which we examined the respondents' reaction to two morphologically different snake stimuli categories -one evoking exclusively fear and another evoking exclusively disgust. Here we acquired Likert-type scale scores of fear and disgust evoked by the same snake stimuli by a total of 330 respondents. Moreover, we collected data about the respondents' age, gender, education, snake fear [Snake Questionnaire (SNAQ)], and disgust propensity [Disgust Scale-Revised (DS-R)], and we analyzed the effect of these variables on the emotional scores (with special focus on snake-fearful respondents). In addition, we collected the SNAQ and DS-R scores from the respondents tested in the previous study using the rank-ordering method to directly compare the results of these two approaches. The results showed that non-fearful respondents give high scores of fear to the feareliciting snakes and high scores of disgust to the disgust-eliciting snakes, but they give low scores of the other emotional dimension (disgust/fear) to each. In contrast, snakefearful respondents not only give higher fear and disgust scores to the respective snake stimuli, but they also give high scores of fear to the disgust-eliciting snakes and high scores of disgust to the fear-eliciting snakes. Both Likert-scale scores and rank-ordering data show that the clear border dividing both snake stimuli categories dissolves when evaluated by the snake-fearful respondents.

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Section: Contribution Of Fear and Disgust To Snake Fearmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional Reaction to Fear- and Disgust-Evoking Snakes: Sensitivity and Propensity in Snake-Fearful Respondents

et al. 2020

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“…Until now, many research studies assessing attitudes or perceptions towards different animal species were performed. They were focusing either on the animals that are disliked such as invertebrates (Kellert, 1993;Killermann, 1996), spiders, bats, snakes (Prokop, Özel, & Uşak, 2009;Tomažič, 2011a), endangered, i.e. amphibians…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Vocational Upper Secondary Schools Students’ Knowledge and Their Attitudes Toward Wolves

Oražem

Tomažič

2018

JBSE

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Wolf (Canis lupus) conservation is multidimensional. Its aspects include the consensus between different interest groups. The present research aimed to assess the attitude and knowledge of the students (N = 483 students from three schools age 14-19) enrolled in the environmentalist, veterinary and agricultural technician study programmes through a questionnaire, as their profession represents a part of this multidimensional consensus. The research results indicate that students have neutral to positive attitudes toward wolves, generally. Their knowledge of wolves, however, is limited. Agricultural technicians showed the most negative attitudes toward wolves and the lowest knowledge. Overall, correlations between all attitudinal dimensions and correlations between attitudinal dimensions and knowledge were found, with the highest correlations between conservation dimension and all other dimensions including knowledge. The research findings support the widespread assumption that education within the above-mentioned study programmes should focus also on the current socio-scientific issues of animal conservation. Special attention should be given to the education of agricultural technicians as their utilitarian view could interfere with the effective conservation of large carnivores. Keywords: attitudes toward wolves, knowledge about wolves, vocational upper secondary school students.

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“…Worldwide there are few studies on the topic, and existing ones are mainly concentrated in Africa [ 38 - 40 ], south America [ 41 - 45 ], and Asia [ 46 - 49 ]. In Europe these types of studies are very rare [ 50 - 52 ] and in Portugal, apart from some anecdotal references in some herpetological publications or in old general ethnographic studies, there are also few studies on the topic [ 24 , 35 , 36 ]. Studies presenting situations in which this type of knowledge has a negative impact on conservation are few, and almost none have ever established a clear link between the presence of folklore, negative values, and preferences and persecution and anti-conservation attitudes towards reptiles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human attitudes towards herpetofauna: The influence of folklore and negative values on the conservation of amphibians and reptiles in Portugal

Ceríaco

2012

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

155

116

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BackgroundHuman values and folklore of wildlife strongly influence the effectiveness of conservation efforts. These values and folklore may also vary with certain demographic characteristics such as gender, age, or education. Reptiles and amphibians are among the least appreciated of vertebrates and are victims of many negative values and wrong ideas resulting from the direct interpretation of folklore. We try to demonstrate how these values and folklore can affect the way people relate to them and also the possible conservation impacts on these animals.MethodsA questionnaire survey distributed to 514 people in the district of Évora, Portugal, was used to obtain data regarding the hypothesis that the existence of wrong ideas and negative values contributes to the phenomenon of human-associated persecution of these animals. A structural equation model was specified in order to confirm the hypothesis about the possible relationships between the presence of perceptions and negative values about amphibians and reptiles and persecution and anti-conservation attitudes. Sociodemographic variables were also added.ResultsThe results of the model suggest that the presence of folklore and negative values clearly predicts persecution and anti-conservation attitudes towards amphibians and reptiles. Also, the existence of folklore varies sociodemographically, but negative values concerning these animals are widespread in the population.ConclusionsWith the use of structural equation models, this work is a contribution to the study of how certain ideas and values can directly influence human attitudes towards herpetofauna and how they can be a serious conservation issue.

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Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ and Primary School Students’ Attitudes Toward and Knowledge about Snakes

Cited by 25 publications

References 26 publications

Emotional Reaction to Fear- and Disgust-Evoking Snakes: Sensitivity and Propensity in Snake-Fearful Respondents

Emotional Reaction to Fear- and Disgust-Evoking Snakes: Sensitivity and Propensity in Snake-Fearful Respondents

The Vocational Upper Secondary Schools Students’ Knowledge and Their Attitudes Toward Wolves

Human attitudes towards herpetofauna: The influence of folklore and negative values on the conservation of amphibians and reptiles in Portugal

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