ABSTRACT

Understanding how visitor engagement with interpretation impacts on their attitudes to conservation is necessary to develop effective zoo-based conservation education. We examined whether facilitating an emotional connection between a visitor and an individual chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) was more successful at enhancing attitudes than standard zoo interpretation. Attitudes were assessed post visit using a 12-item questionnaire on predisposition toward nature, attitudes to chimpanzees, and conservation. Visitors at two chimpanzee exhibits were allocated to an emotion enhancement condition (n = 227) or a control condition (n = 203). At one exhibit, visitors were also allocated to an interactive task (location) without emotional enhancement (n = 69). Participants were also recruited to an online control condition (n = 216). Principal component analyses identified two components labeled as Naturalistic, which refers to interest and affection for wildlife and nature, and Humanistic, which refers to interest and affection for individual animals or species with anthropomorphic characteristics. At one exhibit, both Naturalistic and Humanistic attitudes were significantly more positive following the emotion enhancement condition than for the control condition. At the other exhibit, Naturalistic and Humanistic components did not differ between conditions, and there was no overall difference between online and on-site conditions. While emotional enhancement may be effective in promoting pro-conservation attitudes, this is dependent on contextual factors (e.g., exhibit design and interpretation). Attitudes were also influenced by stable visitor characteristics (pet ownership and zoo membership) and are therefore likely to prove difficult to change, at least during a single zoo visit. Visitor and animal characteristics, and the interpretation of the exhibit all shape the visitor experience; understanding these interactions is important in facilitating effective zoo conservation education.

摘要

要发展有效的以动物园为基础的保护教育，必须了解游客对口译的参与如何影响他们对保护的态度。我们研究了在访客和个体黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes）之间建立情感联系是否比标准的动物园解释更能成功地提高人们的态度。访问后使用12个项目的问卷对态度进行评估，该问卷涉及对自然的易感性，对黑猩猩的态度和保护情况。将两个黑猩猩展品的参观者分配到情绪增强条件（n  = 227）或控制条件（n  = 203）。在一次展览中，参观者还被分配到一个互动任务（位置），而没有情感上的增强（n = 69）。参与者也被招募到具有在线控制条件（n = 216）。主成分分析确定了两个成分，分别标记为Naturalistic（自然主义）和野生动物（humanistic），这两个成分分别指对野生动植物和自然的兴趣和情感，而对人类具有拟人化特征的物种的兴趣和情感。在一次展览中，在情绪增强条件下，自然主义和人文主义态度都比在控制条件下更加积极。在其他展览中，自然条件和人文因素在不同条件下没有差异，在线和现场条件之间也没有整体差异。情绪增强可能有效地促进了人们对自然保护的态度，但这取决于环境因素（例如，展览品的设计和解释）。态度也受稳定的访客特征（宠物拥有权和动物园成员身份）的影响，因此，至少在一次动物园参观期间，态度可能难以改变。参观者和动物的特征，以及对展览品的诠释，都塑造了参观者的体验；了解这些相互作用对促进有效的动物园保护教育很重要。