Why Are Public Values Toward Wildlife Changing?

While there is an assumption that values toward wildlife have changed in the United States over the last half of the twentieth century, few studies have addressed this topic. This article overviews a research program designed to examine wildlife value orientation shift in the U.S. Theory and empirical research suggest that increasing affluence, education, and urbanization, and declining residential stability drive value shift. We tested whether these factors are associated with the proportion of individuals with traditional "Materialist" values and a utilitarian orientation toward wildlife across six western states (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota). We conducted state-level analysis and found that the proportion of "traditionalists" within a state is strongly and inversely related to level of income, urbanization, and education, and positively related to residential stability. Results provide support for explanation that if current economic and social trends continue, a sustained erosion of traditional orientations toward wildlife is likely. This forms a key hypothesis to be tested in further research on this topic.