In recent years, hunters in Poland have faced a low level of social acceptance. Scientists from the USA and Sweden have demonstrated that contact with hunters and game meat consumption is one of the decisive factors affecting the social acceptance of hunting. The aim of our study was to examine attitudes towards hunting (ATH) held by the non-hunting part of Polish society and to analyse factors influencing these perceptions. We hypothesised that Polish people have a generally negative ATH but that Polish people who have direct contact with hunters and eat game meat have a more positive ATH. During the study, we surveyed a randomly selected representative sample of 486 respondents. Based on nine statements defining non-hunters’ perceptions, we determined ATH and then investigated its association with attitudinal items such as hunting experience, socialisation, social network and socio-demographic information. We found that most respondents (61.7%) possessed an ATH that was at least slightly positive. Experience with hunting and hunters had a significant positive impact on ATH, and respondents who included game meat in their diet on a regular basis had a more positive ATH, as did respondents who participate in hunting. Socialisation and social network (having parents or friends who hunt/having a hunter in the household) were key positive influences on ATH. Conversely, the inability to visit a forest in their neighbourhood due to ongoing hunting had a significant negative impact on ATH. Different socio-demographic variables had a low impact on ATH. The results of this study show measurable steps towards increasing knowledge about social acceptance of hunting and can also be used as a strong argument in the discussion regarding the existence of sustainable hunting in Europe. We recommend several management implications, especially in a Polish context.

中文翻译：

---

波兰社会对狩猎的态度以及狩猎经验，社会化和社交网络的相关影响

近年来，波兰的猎人面临着较低的社会认可度。来自美国和瑞典的科学家已经证明，与猎人的接触和野味的消耗是影响社会对狩猎的接受的决定性因素之一。我们研究的目的是检验波兰社会中非狩猎者对狩猎的态度，并分析影响这些观念的因素。我们假设波兰人的ATH总体上为阴性，而与猎人直接接触并食用野味的波兰人的ATH更高。在研究过程中，我们调查了486名受访者的随机抽样代表性样本。根据定义非猎人感知的9条陈述，我们确定了ATH，然后调查了其与诸如狩猎经历，社会化，社交网络和社会人口信息。我们发现，大多数受访者（61.7％）拥有的ATH至少略为阳性。狩猎和猎人的经历对ATH有显着的积极影响，并且定期将野味添加到饮食中的被调查者与参与狩猎的被调查者相比，ATH更为积极。社交和社交网络（有父母或朋友在家里打猎/有猎人）是对ATH的关键积极影响。相反，由于持续的狩猎而无法探访其附近的森林对ATH产生了重大的负面影响。不同的社会人口统计学变量对ATH的影响很小。这项研究的结果表明，可以采取一些可衡量的步骤来增加人们对狩猎的社会接受度的认识，也可以作为有关欧洲可持续狩猎存在的讨论的有力依据。我们建议对管理产生一些影响，尤其是在波兰语境中。