Using Psychology to Save Biodiversity and Human Well‐Being

Saunders, Carol D.; Brook, Amara T.; Myers, Olin Eugene

doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00435.x

Cited by 125 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…To understand the underlying motives behind WTP for biodiversity conservation, contingent-valuation studies should be improved through the incorporation of other scientific disciplines, such as environmental psychology or human ecology. Therefore, conservation decision-making processes call for interdisciplinary knowledge in which conservation biologists and economists collaborate with anthropologists and psychologists (Mascia et al 2003;Saunders et al 2006). Implementing contingent valuation for biodiversity is a difficult task because the public has a low level of understanding of what biodiversity is and why it matters (Christie et al 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Valuation of Biodiversity Conservation: the Meaning of Numbers

Martín‐López

Montes

Benayas

2008

Conservation Biology

156

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Recognition of the need to include economic criteria in the conservation policy decision-making process has encouraged the use of economic-valuation techniques. Nevertheless, whether it is possible to accurately assign economic values to biodiversity and if so what these valuesPalabras Clave: actitudes hacia los animales, conservación de la biodiversidad, meta análisis, política de conservación, valoración económica de la biodiversidad, disposición a pagar

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Valuation of Biodiversity Conservation: the Meaning of Numbers

Martín‐López

Montes

Benayas

2008

Conservation Biology

156

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“…Thus, the conservation of biodiversity critically depends on the values that humans attach to it, which include ecological, economic, cultural, aesthetic, ethical and spiritual values (Edwards and Abivardi, 1998;Chapin et al, 2000;Saunders, 2003;Trombulak et al, 2004;Saunders et al, 2006). All of these values have validity, motivating different groups of people to support conservation, therefore none should be discarded (Hector et al, 2001;Jepson and Canney, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of plant diversity on people’s perception and aesthetic appreciation of grassland vegetation

Lindemann‐Matthies

Junge

Matthies

2010

Biological Conservation

294

150

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The influence of plant diversity on people's perception and aesthetic appreciation of grassland vegetation AbstractThe conservation of biodiversity critically depends on the value that humans attach to it. Apart from an ecological and economic value, an aesthetic value has often been assigned to biodiversity. However, it is not known whether lay people appreciate the diversity of species and not just certain individual species or nature as a whole. We studied in a series of experiments and field studies people's perception and appreciation of species diversity. We presented meadow-like arrays of different species richness and evenness but random species composition to lay people and asked them to estimate plant species richness and rank the arrays by attractiveness. The experiments were complemented by two larger-scale field studies using natural meadows. Both in the experiments and the field studies the mean perception of species richness by people increased with true species richness, but was slightly overestimated at low and increasingly underestimated at high diversity levels. Lay people's aesthetic appreciation of both the experimental grassland arrays and the natural meadows increased with true species richness.Communities consisting of the same number of species were perceived to be more species-rich and were appreciated more when their evenness was high. Our results demonstrate that plant diversity in itself is attractive to humans. The current reduction of the diversity of grasslands due to intensification of management may thus reduce the attractiveness of regions where grasslands are a dominant feature of the landscape. This could have negative consequences for tourism and may add an economic argument for the conservation of biodiversity in grasslands.Lindemann-Matthies, P., Junge, X., Matthies, D. 2010. Experimental evidence for human preference of biodiversity in grassland ecosystems. The influence of plant diversity on people's perception and aesthetic appreciation of grassland vegetation AbstractThe conservation of biodiversity critically depends on the value that humans attach to it.Apart from an ecological and economic value, an aesthetic value has often been assigned to biodiversity. However, it is not known whether lay people appreciate the diversity of speciesand not just certain individual species or nature as a whole. We studied in a series of experiments and field studies people's perception and appreciation of species diversity. We presented meadow-like arrays of different species richness and evenness but random species composition to lay people and asked them to estimate plant species richness and rank the arrays by attractiveness. The experiments were complemented by two larger-scale field studies using natural meadows. Both in the experiments and the field studies the mean perception of species richness by people increased with true species richness, but was slightly overestimated at low and increasingly underestimated at high diversity levels. Lay people's aesthetic appreciation of b...

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“…However, not much is known as yet about the effects of different forms of representing scientific information. With regard to this issue, science communication and conservation sciences alike can benefit from approaches from the field of psychology (Saunders et al, 2006). Transferring knowledge, supporting attitude formation, and enabling people to assess risk are key tasks of science communication in general and major factors in the public understanding of scientific information (Morgan, 2002;Jacobson et al, 2004;Kimmerle and Cress, 2013;Lundgren and McMakin, 2013;Irwin, 2014;Kimmerle et al, 2015;Feinkohl et al, 2016;Flemming et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotionalization in Science Communication: The Impact of Narratives and Visual Representations on Knowledge Gain and Risk Perception

et al. 2018

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The communication of scientific information plays an increasingly important role for scientists and scientific institutions. This is especially true of institutions in the field of biodiversity and conservation research, since the transfer of research results to the public is a prerequisite for decision-making, and the success of conservation measures often depends on public acceptance or active contribution. To have the desired impact, science communication in the context of human-wildlife interactions must enable recipients to (1) gain valid knowledge, (2) form an attitude toward the subject matter, and (3) develop an adequate understanding of the risks and dangers associated with human-wildlife interactions, which are usually overestimated by the general public. Using the topic of foxes in urban habitats, we investigated the role of emotionalization in science communication.In a laboratory experiment with 127 university students (91 females), we manipulated textual and visual features in an information brochure about foxes and examined their impact on people's knowledge gain, attitude development, and modified risk perception. In particular, we compared a narrative presentation to a non-narrative list of facts and examined the use of photographs of young foxes. We found a positive development in all of the outcome variables from the pre-to the posttest (more knowledge, more positive attitude, lower risk perception). We also found an interaction effect of text type and visualization on knowledge gain that highlighted the importance of the fit between text type and visualization. In contrast to our expectations, we did not find any differential effects of specific treatments on attitude development. Finally, we found a main effect of text type on modified risk perception, indicating less reduction of risk perception with a narrative article than with a fact list. We discuss our findings with respect to the role of emotionalization in science communication, stressing that it is particularly important to achieve a suitable fit between textual and visual forms of emotionalization, depending on the goal of communication. We also discuss possible explanations as to why some hypotheses were not supported by the data. In our concluding statements, we refer to limitations of the present study and address implications for future research.

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Using Psychology to Save Biodiversity and Human Well‐Being

Cited by 125 publications

References 34 publications

Economic Valuation of Biodiversity Conservation: the Meaning of Numbers

Economic Valuation of Biodiversity Conservation: the Meaning of Numbers

The influence of plant diversity on people’s perception and aesthetic appreciation of grassland vegetation

Emotionalization in Science Communication: The Impact of Narratives and Visual Representations on Knowledge Gain and Risk Perception

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