Social norms are commonly used to investigate visitor beliefs about acceptable wildlife encounters in parks and protected areas. However, there is little information detailing if self-reported norms match actual behaviors. This study compared self-reported norms (n = 304) for viewing distances of adult and cub black bears with behavioral observations (n = 355) of actual encounters at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina, USA. First, we conducted a crossover design to examine the impact of viewing different groupings of bears at varying distances on acceptability beliefs. Our design significantly affected self-reported, minimum acceptable distance thresholds for an adult bear with cubs (Sequence 1 = 40.69 m; Sequence 2 = 48.24 m). Next, we found self-reported thresholds strongly differed from actual behaviors: 45 % of observations documented visitors closer than 40.69 m from bears. These findings illustrate the value of mixed-methods approaches to understand wildlife viewing behaviors and inform management actions.

社会规范通常用于调查游客对在公园和保护区遇到的可接受野生动植物的看法。但是，很少有信息详细说明自我报告的规范是否符合实际行为。这项研究比较了自我报告的规范（n  = 304）对成年黑熊和幼崽黑熊的观察距离与行为观察（n = 355）在美国北卡罗来纳州的鳄鱼河国家野生动物保护区进行的实际遭遇。首先，我们进行了交叉设计，以检验以不同距离观察不同种类的熊对可接受性信念的影响。我们的设计显着影响了成年幼崽的自我报告的最小可接受距离阈值（序列1 = 40.69 m；序列2 = 48.24 m）。接下来，我们发现自我报告的阈值与实际行为存在很大差异：45％的观测结果表明访客离熊的距离小于40.69 m。这些发现说明了采用混合方法来了解野生动物观赏行为并告知管理行动的价值。