Dr. Alia Dietsch, OSU, Associate Professor of Environment and Natural
Resources
Title: America’s Wildlife Values: Understanding our relationships with the wild world
Abstract: Conservation is considered a crisis discipline born out of widespread biodiversity loss that
requires humans to understand their impacts on others, including our wild kin, and ultimately take strides to improve our relationships with the world. Much of how we view and ultimately treat others, including wild animals, is driven by our enduring, fundamental beliefs (i.e., values). This talk highlights how substantial changes in everyday life associated with urbanization and societal-level increases in wealth and education (i.e., ‘modernization’) has led to a shift in American values over several decades. Specifically, the United States is experiencing a reduction of domination values (focused on meeting basic human needs) and a growth of mutualism values (focused on the perceived needs of others, including wildlife). The America’s Wildlife Values study, a collaboration among partners, explored the distribution of wildlife values across the United States, and how values led to challenges and opportunities for wildlife conservation. Using data collected from 43,949 respondents representing all 50 states, this talk specifically highlights the need to understand what shapes values, and the degree to which values influence how we think and act toward wild animals. This research demonstrates that such a value shift is consistent with the rise of conservation-relevant attitudes behaviors (e.g., birdwatching, perceived care of wildlife) and policy preferences (e.g., restrictions on humans to protect threatened and endangered species). However, this societal shift of values is also creating a policy backlash represented in other domains of American life that are challenging traditional management practices in our enduring institutions.
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