Wolves in Context: Using Survey Data to Situate Attitudes Within a Wider Cultural Framework

Abstract

Studies of public attitudes toward wolves tend to be descriptive in nature, and few sophisticated analyses of complex attitude patterns have been conducted. Drawing on findings from qualitative studies, the present study analyzed nationally representative survey data from Norway in order to probe the relationships between attitudes toward wolves and such factors as education, urban/rural place of residence, cultural capital, and various value orientations: environmental orientation, general political values, and trust in formal or informal information sources. Structural equation modeling confirmed that attitudes are embedded in more general cultural patterns. Although the cultural level is influenced by structural factors, effects of the background variables were reduced or disappeared in a model that included value orientations. This finding demonstrates that in order to access the level of meaning by means of survey methods, carefully constructed instruments and causal models must be employed.