Lakeside education campaigns discourage anglers from transporting aquatic hitchhikers between lakes, but new research hows those campaigns are less effective than they could be. According to the study, the key could be tailoring messaging in accordance with anglers’ value systems and risk perceptions.

Lakeside education campaigns discourage anglers from transporting aquatic hitchhikers between lakes, but new research from the University of Illinois and Cornell University shows those campaigns are less effective than they could be. According to the study, the key could be tailoring messaging in accordance with anglers’ value systems and risk perceptions.

«Social science research is very underrepresented in fisheries management, but it’s important. We need to make management decisions based, in part, on how people think and feel, and more importantly, what gets them to take action. Too often, we leave that part out and focus solely on the affected ecosystems and other organisms. But human behavior needs to be part of the equation,» says Carena van Riper, associate professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES) at U of I.

Van Riper worked with doctoral student Elizabeth Golebie, NRES professor Cory Suski, and Richard Stedman, professor and chair in the Department of Natural Resources in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at Cornell, to evaluate what motivates anglers to take action (or not) on the issue of aquatic invasive species.

«We looked at how values predicted risk perceptions, and how risk perceptions predicted behavior,» Golebie says. «As for risk perceptions, people knew invasive species were problematic and could hurt the ecosystem. That’s an example of a social risk perception — the risk of something harming society or, in this case, the environment. But for most anglers, personal risk perceptions weren’t as strong.»

The researchers found most anglers weren’t thinking about how invasive species could affect their own lives; for example, how a lake choked with invasive aquatic plants could make navigating watercraft more difficult. And years and years of social science research says if people don’t perceive threats, they’re less likely to take action.

Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Original written by Lauren Quinn. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.