Do you think grizzly bears should be reintroduced in the Selway Bitterroot Ecosystem in the State of Idaho?

1. Do you think grizzly bears should be reintroduced in the Selway Bitterroot Ecosystem in the State of Idaho? _______Agree _______Disagree

2. Key Concepts • Attitudes • Classical, Operant, Observational • Elaboration Likelihood Model

3. Attitudes • What is an attitude? • Why do we care about attitudes? • How are they formed? • How do we measure attitudes? • Do attitudes predict behavior? • Can attitudes be changed?

4. Attitudes How a person responds to the world; favorable or unfavorable manner (+, -). A persons general predisposition to evaluate other people, objects, and issues favorable or unfavorably. A person’s attitude influences the way in which he or she responds to the world. They influence: Attention-how we notice things Behavior-persons actions because of attitude Contain an evaluative component: Positive or negative Intensity

5. Environmental Attitude • A learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to the environment.

6. Attitudes Wolves do not belong in Idaho, they are bad!! Small, frequent and low intensity fires are good for ecosystem health!! I think global warming is the most serious environmental problem in the world today!!

7. Why Do We Care? • Understanding and measuring attitudes is important when dealing with environmental conflicts. • Help us develop education programs in an attempt to involve the public in decision making. • Influence perceptions and behavior toward issues.

8. Changing Attitudes? Question: Do you think natural resource managers at a federal level are trying to change the public’s attitudes about management strategies for our public lands? Examples: Ecosystem Management, Prescribed Fire, Endangered Species Recovery, Forest Health Initiative

9. Why do we care?

10. Attitudes How are attitudes formed? Classical-Child overhears continued responses begins to associate subject with negative or positive responses Operant-Child is reinforced by authority figure Observational-Watching the behavior of someone or something else

11. Attitudes How measure? Should grizzly bears be re-introduced in Idaho? Yes_______ No_________ Likert Scale ____Strongly Agree ____Agree ____Undecided ____Disagree ____Strongly Disagree Indirect Methods--Observe Behavior

12. What Leads to Strong Attitudes? • Group polarization (groups enforce them) • Elaboration (think about it a lot) • Side bets (invested resources: house, car)

13. What do strong attitudes do? • Resist change • Bias information processing • Durable and have impact

14. When are Attitudes LIKELY to Change? When people have weak attitudes or non-attitudes Low experience or low knowledge of a topic or fact Attitudes are “Beliefs +Evaluation”, so changing beliefs may change attitudes.

15. Elaboration Likelihood Model • More we think about, process, or “elaborate on” a message, the more important are its claims. • Less we elaborate on it, the more important are factors such as source credibility, creating feelings, eye-catching color, etc. • Two cognitive “routes” to persuasion: central route, and peripheral route.

16. Central Route of ELM • Audience is motivated and capable of processing arguments of a message. • Considered, thoughtful weighing of arguments; in favor of it or counter to it. • The greater the ratio of favorable arguments to counter-arguments, the stronger the message is. • In these circumstances, you should: • use clear, reasoned, logical arguments • explain reasons for desired changes

17. Peripheral Route of ELM • Low attention to message content • Reliance on heuristics • In these circumstances, you should • catch attention • create favorable thoughts • keep message short and sweet • have constant reminders

20. Just because you can change an attitude, does it mean you can change behavior?

21. What factors “interfere” with attitude-behavior consistency? • Individual • psychological states • evaluations of merits of behavior change • knowledge • vested interest

22. What factors “interfere” with attitude-behavior consistency? • Situational • lack of ability/opportunity to act • timing of message • significant others • specificity

23. So, to know if persuasion will work, you need to know about... • Individual characteristics • motivations for acting - level of vested interest • psychological states - knowledge • Situational characteristics • timing - ability/opportunity to act • social group issues - distractions • Message characteristics • quality of arguments • peripheral cues

24. So What?Are we in the midst of a scientific revolution in how we view and manage natural resources? Competing Paradigms Wise Use Movement Deep Ecology ? Ecosystem Management Multiple Use