Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug 23;12(17):2160.
doi: 10.3390/ani12172160.

Do People Care about the Origin of Wildlife? The Role of Social Stereotypes on Public Preference for Exotic Animals

Rocío Alejandra Díaz  1 , Verónica Sevillano  2 , Marcelo Hernán Cassini  1
Affiliations

Do People Care about the Origin of Wildlife? The Role of Social Stereotypes on Public Preference for Exotic Animals

Rocío Alejandra Díaz et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

People's attitudes to animals are becoming increasingly important for the success of invasive species management. We asked college students from Argentina to fill a questionnaire that included a question about their favorite free-living animal. A total of 159 responses were obtained. Native species were significantly less preferred than non-native species. We tested if these preferences were associated with animal stereotypes. The stereotype hypothesis predicts that animals from the contemptible stereotype (invertebrate, rodents, and reptiles) should be the least preferred taxa, and animals from the protective stereotype (pets, horses, and primates) should be the most preferred taxa; animals from the subordination (lagomorphs and birds) and threatening-awe stereotype (large carnivores) should show intermediate preferences. The first prediction was supported. However, students showed significant preference for non-native taxa included in the threatening-awe stereotype. We proposed that people prefer large carnivores (stereotypically strong, intelligent, and beautiful animals) when they are exotic, because they did not represent a risk.

Keywords: animals; non-native species; social stereotypes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sevillano and Fiske’s [29] model of animal stereotypes. Description in the Introduction.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Frequencies of responses and (B) number of different taxa, when the preferred species was a non-native taxon, a native taxon, or a taxon that could be regarded as both native and non-native species.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Percentages of responses for which the preferred species were native, non-native, or taxa that included both categories, comparing respondents who had always lived in large cities with those who had once lived or lived in small villages. Those who once lived in the countryside showed a significantly greater preference for native species.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Percentages of responses for which the preferred species could be assigned to the four animal stereotypes defined by Sevillano and Fiske [29].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Williamson M. Biological Invasions. Chapman and Hall; London, UK: 1996.
    1. Jeschke J.M., Heger T., editors. Invasion Biology: Hypotheses and Evidence. Volume 9 CABI; Wallingford, UK: 2018.
    1. Simberloff D., Souza L., Nuñez M.A., Barrios-Garcia N.M., Bunn W. The natives are restless, but not often and mostly when disturbed. Ecology. 2012;93:598–607. doi: 10.1890/11-1232.1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pimentel D., Rodolfo Z., Doug M. Update on the environmental and economic costs associated with alien-invasive species in the United States. Ecol. Econ. 2005;52:273–288. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.10.002. - DOI
    1. Davis M.A., Chew M.K., Hobbs R.J., Lugo A.E., Ewel J.J., Vermeij G.J., Brown J.H., Rosenzweig M.L., Gardener M.R., Carroll S.P., et al. Don’t judge species on their origins. Nature. 2011;474:153–154. doi: 10.1038/474153a. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources