Doctoral Dissertation Research: Using Prospect Theory and Human Perceptions of Wildlife to Predict Support for Invasive Species Management.

许多环境问题被高度政治化。入侵物种的影响是尚未政治化的环境问题的一个例子。入侵物种也是全球生物多样性下降的最重要驱动因素之一，据估计，美国每年的管理和缓解成本高达1200亿美元，这使得这成为土地和野生动物管理者的一个突出而重要的问题。入侵物种的管理可能特别困难，因为公众对管理风险的看法可能影响这一行动的成败。尽管如此，人们对如何以一种有利于公众支持的方式来构建入侵物种的管理框架知之甚少。前景理论表明，公众对传达损失而非收益的框架的反应会更强烈。由于入侵物种政策还没有政治化，它提供了一个有用的测试前景理论在环境竞技场的成本往往集中和利益。通过测试前景理论在一系列的物种，本研究可以评估个人如何感知风险和显着性的物种身份在确定感知需要管理。这种对消息帧的反应可能会进一步受到物种感知的调制，这反过来又会影响管理策略实施的成败。通过在我们对消息框架的分析中考虑物种身份，我们可以确定物种身份如何与消息框架相互作用以塑造政策结果。该项目通过提供新颖的研究来了解框架在公众对环境管理相关风险的感知中的作用，从而有助于将社会生态学和公共政策领域结合起来。我们预计哺乳动物和其他“可爱”物种将减少对管理的支持，使消息框架与支持结果更相关。相比之下，我们预计，与传统上被认为是不受欢迎的物种（例如爬行动物或两栖动物）相关的消息帧在确定公众支持方面的相关性较低。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Many environmental issues are highly politicized. Invasive species impacts are an example of an environmental problem that has not become politicized. Invasive species are also one of the most important drivers of declines in global biodiversity, estimated to cost $120 billion annually in management and mitigation costs in the US, making this a salient and important issue for land and wildlife managers. Invasive species management can be particularly difficult because the public perception of risks associated with management can influence the success or failure of that action. Despite this, little is known about how to frame the management of invasive species in a way that facilitates public support.Prospect theory suggests that the public will respond more strongly to frames that communicate losses than gains. Because invasive species policy is as yet not politicized, it provides a useful test of prospect theory in the environmental arena where costs are often concentrated and benefits. By testing prospect theory across a range of species, this research can evaluate how individuals perceive risk and salience of species identity in determining the perceived need for management. This response to messaging frames may be further modulated by the perception of a species, which can, in turn, influence the success or failure of the implementation of management strategies. By accounting for species identity in our analysis of messaging frames, we can identify how species identity interacts with messaging frames to shape policy outcomes. This project helps to unite the fields of social ecology and public policy by providing novel research to understand the role of framing in the public's perception of risk associated with environmental management. We expect that mammals and other "cute" species will reduce support for management, making messaging frames more relevant to support outcomes. In contrast, we expect that messaging frames related to species that are traditionally thought of as undesirable (e.g. reptiles or amphibians) will be less relevant in determining public support. Broadly, this project can inform managers about how to frame and message about invasive species to increase public support for management.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.