Susan C. Barro

Patterns of Wildlife Value Orientations in Hunters' Families

Public value orientations toward wildlife may be growing less utilitarian and more protectionist. To better understand one aspect of this trend, we investigated patterns of wildlife value orientations within families. Using a mail survey, we sampled Pennsylvania and Colorado hunting license holders 50 or older, obtaining a 54% response rate ( n = 599). Males (94% of sample) reported their own basic beliefs about wildlife and perceptions of the basic beliefs of their mothers, fathers, spouses, oldest sons, and oldest daughters. A majority approved of wildlife use and hunting but not wildlife rights. Males were least likely to perceive differences between their own beliefs and those of their fathers and sons and most likely to perceive differences between their own beliefs and those of their daughters. Respondents who perceived most differences were likely to report moderate utilitarian value orientations and to have grown up in urban areas, lived in more than one state, and attended college. Results link values shifts to three current trends: urbanization, residential mobility, and increasing education. To the extent that wildlife value orientations are changing, wildlife management agencies must adapt to that change. Future studies should measure beliefs of multiple family members and use both quantitative and qualitative approaches to understanding values transmission.

A Cross-Regional Comparison of Recreation Patterns of Older Hunters

We studied outdoor recreation patterns among older hunting license holders in Pennsylvania and Colorado to better understand aspects of five trends that promise to impact outdoor recreation preferences, behavior, and management priorities: Sunbelt population growth, declining residential stability, urbanization, aging, and increasing levels of formal education. Results of our mail survey showed that the samples were similar in age, gender, and ethnicity, but Pennsylvania respondents were more likely to have lived their entire lives in the state and had spent more of their adult lives in rural areas. On the other hand, Pennsylvania respondents were less likely to have attended school beyond high school. Pennsylvania respondents hunted more frequently and were more likely to gather wild foods. Colorado respondents were more likely to fish, and they participated in more nonconsumptive activities. Education, rural/urban differences, and residential stability had a limited ability to predict differences in consumptive activities. Age, education, and residential stability predicted differences in nonconsumptive activities. Results suggest that cultural differences between regions may be more important than socio-demographic characteristics for understanding of outdoor recreation patterns in the past, present, and future.

Constraints, psychological investment, and hunting participation: Development and testing of a model

Abstract This study sought to gain a better understanding of hunting participation through the development and testing of a conceptual model. The model examined participation (retention) in the context of rifle deer hunting in Colorado by state residents and nonresidents. Participation was hypothesized to be directly associated with peoples level of investment, level of constraints, past experience, and behavioral intention. The proposed model was loosely based on the theory of reasoned action. Beliefs about the potentially negative impacts of new hunting regulations, and attitude toward rifle deer hunting in Colorado were the other components included in the model. Results indicated that for both Colorado residents and nonresidents, past experience was found to increase the probability of participation in rifle deer hunting in 1993. In addition, as perception of constraints increased, the probability of participation for both residents and nonresidents decreased. For nonresidents, increased level of inv...

Examination of the predictive validity of CVM using an attitude‐behavior framework

The contingent valuation method (CVM) has been used to assign monetary value to goods not normally bought and sold in the marketplace. Sometimes this value is used to make inferences about what a person might actually be willing to pay. The relationship between responses to willingness to pay (WTP) questions and a paying behavior was examined in this study using a conceptual framework from attitude theory. Willingness to pay was considered a behavioral intention to pay, and a mock vote on a sales tax initiative was considered a paying behavior. Two factors known to affect the intention‐behavior relationship were varied. Subjects were provided different levels of information about the good and were asked about their willingness to pay using different question contexts. Increasing the context correspondence between measures of intention and behavior strengthened the relationship. Information did not significantly increase the consistency between intention and behavior. Determining the meaning in behavioral ...

Norm accessibility: An exploratory study of backcountry and frontcountry recreational norms

This study examined the norms that are salient to or accessed by subjects in response to scenes of frontcountry and backcountry settings. Inasmuch as salient norms are more likely to influence behavior, the concept of norm accessibility has utility for recreation and natural resource management. After viewing sets of photographic slides of either frontcountry or backcountry recreation settings, college students completed a questionnaire that elicited salient norms and measured students’ previous experience, knowledge, and frequency of visitation levels with the specific setting. Results suggest that while there seem to be few differences in the norm topics recalled or mean number of norms accessed by respondents in backcountry and frontcountry settings, there was slightly more group agreement in the norms accessed for the backcountry setting. The number of norms recalled by respondents was influenced by previous experience, frequency of contact with the setting, and level of knowledge with the recreationa...

Integrative complexity and attitudes: A case study of plant and wildlife species protection

Abstract Cognitive psychologists have developed and tested a protocol for measuring the complex way that people think about issues. Called integrative complexity, it represents the intricacy of a persons thought processes in evaluating information and making decisions. It is based on the number of aspects of a problem people consider (differentiation) and how this information is incorporated (integration) to form views about an issue. We measured the integrative complexity of perceptions of plant and wildlife species protection. Residents of Illinois described, in an essay, their position on this issue using a mail‐back questionnaire. We examined how integrative complexity was related to attitudes toward plant and wildlife species protection, objective knowledge about the issue, and environmental ideology. Integrative complexity was highest for knowledgeable individuals with moderate attitudes toward species protection. Attitude‐direction and environmental ideology were not related to the complexity of thought. Implications of this research focus on the measurement of integrative complexity, how the construct can improve our understanding of public attitudes and values toward natural resource issues, understanding the relationship between attitudes and behaviors, and assessing the effects of communication programs about natural resource issues.