Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-17-2020
Department
College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science; Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Abstract
Judgments about acceptable risk in the context of policy may be influenced by law makers, policy makers, experts and the general public. While significant effort has been made to understand public attitudes on acceptable risk of environmental pollution, little is known about such attitudes in the context of species' endangerment. We present survey results on these attitudes in the context of United States' legal-political apparatus intended to mitigate species endangerment. The results suggest that the general public exhibit lower tolerance for risk than policy makers and experts. Results also suggest that attitudes about acceptable risk for species endangerment are importantly influenced by one's knowledge about the environment and social identity. That result is consistent with notions that risk judgments are a synthesis of facts and values and that knowledge is associated with one's social identity. We explain the implications of these findings for understanding species endangerment across the planet.
Publication Title
Environmental Research Letters
Recommended Citation
Offer-Westort, T.,
Feltz, A.,
Bruskotter, J. T.,
&
Vucetich, J. A.
(2020).
What is an endangered species?: judgments about acceptable risk.
Environmental Research Letters,
15(1).
http://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5cc8
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/1177
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Included in
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Publisher's Statement
Article deposited here in compliance with publisher policies. Publisher's version of record: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5cc8