Neither Hope nor Fear: Empirical Evidence Should Drive Biodiversity Conservation Strategies

Lindall R Kidd; Sarah A Bekessy; Georgia E Garrard

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2019.01.018

Neither Hope nor Fear: Empirical Evidence Should Drive Biodiversity Conservation Strategies

Trends Ecol Evol. 2019 Apr;34(4):278-282. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.01.018. Epub 2019 Feb 26.

Authors

Lindall R Kidd¹, Sarah A Bekessy², Georgia E Garrard²

Affiliations

¹ Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia; National Environmental Science Programme Threatened Species Recovery Hub, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address: lindall.kidd@rmit.edu.au.
² Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia; National Environmental Science Programme Threatened Species Recovery Hub, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.

PMID: 30824194
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.01.018

Abstract

In biodiversity conservation, the prevailing consensus is that optimistic messages should be used to inspire people to change their behaviour, but there is scarce empirical evidence that optimistic messages lead to favourable conservation behaviour change.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biodiversity*
Conservation of Natural Resources*
Fear