Conservation attitudes have been a commonly-used psychological measure of program effectiveness in conservation social science research. The major limitation of this approach is that attitudes do not always translate into behavior, and therefore may not provide an accurate assessment of program success. Given that achieving conservation goals generally relies on understanding and changing behavior, we argue for the need to assess behavior rather than attitudes as an indicator of conservation program outcomes. In addition, we call for conservation programs to be designed to begin with a focus on influencing behavior rather than solely attitudes. We draw on psychological theory to define attitudes and behavior, and show how they are distinct, but related, concepts. We also provide guidance on ways to measure conservation behaviors, and examine the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. Our goal in this paper is to encourage conservation practitioners and researchers to collect quality behavioral data to more effectively inform policy and programs. Article impact statement: Encouraging researchers and practitioners to collect behavioral data and promote behavior change improves policy and program outcomes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

---

通过将关注点从人类态度转移到行为来实现保护影响

保护态度一直是保护社会科学研究中项目有效性的常用心理测量方法。这种方法的主要限制是态度并不总是转化为行为，因此可能无法提供对项目成功的准确评估。鉴于实现保护目标通常依赖于理解和改变行为，我们认为需要评估行为而不是态度作为保护计划结果的指标。此外，我们呼吁保护计划的设计首先要关注影响行为，而不仅仅是态度。我们利用心理学理论来定义态度和行为，并展示它们是如何不同但相关的概念。我们还提供有关衡量保护行为的方法的指导，并检查每种方法的优点和缺点。我们在本文中的目标是鼓励保护从业人员和研究人员收集高质量的行为数据，以更有效地为政策和计划提供信息。文章影响声明：鼓励研究人员和从业人员收集行为数据并促进行为改变，以改善政策和项目成果。本文受版权保护。版权所有。