What's the story of the elephant? Evaluation of choose‐your‐own‐adventure activities on public perception of human–elephant conflict

Abstract

Choose‐your‐own‐adventure (CYOA) narratives offer immersive experiences that can effectively convey complex conservation concepts, fostering empathy and critical thinking, particularly in addressing issues like human–elephant conflict. Despite their potential, there is limited research on the use of CYOA activities in conservation education. In this study, we created an interactive story centered on elephant conservation, drawing from existing research to distill scientific concepts into engaging narratives and utilizing various modes of delivery (YouTube and live performances) to reach diverse audiences. We conducted postactivity surveys to assess variations in audience perception, learning, and conservation engagement intentions in relation to sociodemographic factors, activity type, and messages encountered. We then modeled the relationships between ordinal responses and explanatory variables using cumulative ordinal mixed models (N = 398). For the YouTube version, we also considered sociodemographic factors (YouTube n = 53, non‐YouTube n = 47). Our findings indicate a preference for live performances over online YouTube activity, with participants gaining knowledge about elephant conservation from both formats. For the YouTube activity, participants strongly agreed that the activity allowed engagement with the character and topic. They also expressed a higher likelihood of participating in several conservation actions, relative to a control group. While CYOA storytelling shows promise for conservation education, challenges remain in simplifying scientific language, assessing its impact on comprehension of complex issues, standardizing outcomes, and effectively communicating knowledge. Further research is recommended to adapt this approach, making it applicable to various audiences and domains beyond conservation.