Attitudes toward wildlife species protection: Assessing moderating and mediating effects in the value‐attitude relationship

Abstract

Framed in the cognitive hierarchy approach, we examine (1) the mediating effect of general environmental attitudes and (2) the moderating effect of factual wildlife knowledge on the relationship between values and specific wildlife attitudes (wildlife species protection). These relationships are assessed across four wildlife constituent groups: (1) consumptive users (anglers and hunters), (2) birders (a nonconsumptive user group), (3) non‐hunters, non‐anglers, and nonbirders (nonusers), and (4) combined consumptive and nonconsumptive users (anglers, hunters and birders). Twelve hundred and twenty residents of the Southern Appalachians completed a telephone survey during the summer of 1995. Overall, respondents demonstrated low knowledge but favorable attitudes regarding wildlife species protection. Results provided partial support for a cognitive hierarchy in which general attitudes mediate the relationship between values and specific attitudes, and the existence of knowledge as an external moderating variables. Results are discussed in the context of information‐processing theories and implications for developing effective fish and wildlife communication strategies are considered.