The influence of caring, curiosity, and knowledge on visitors' conservation intentions: an exploratory investigation at the Tracy Aviary

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Title The influence of caring, curiosity, and knowledge on visitors' conservation intentions: an exploratory investigation at the Tracy Aviary
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Health
Department Parks, Recreation, & Tourism
Author Roa, Maria Carolina
Date 2016-05
Description Rapid development and population growth challenges society to adopt behaviors that help conserve vital environmental resources. Zoos play an important role in this challenge because they receive millions of visitors annually and have opportunities to influence visitors' willingness to conserve important resources. Previous research in visitor outcomes has shown that after a zoo visit, people express intentions to engage in conservation actions, at least in the short term. I used Tracy Aviary's mission, "inspire curiosity and caring for birds and nature through education and conservation" to explore different variables that may influence visitors' conservation intentions. These variables were level of engagement, knowledge (objective and subjective), past visitation, curiosity, and conservation caring. Through three research questions, I sought to understand relationships among these variables, as well as identify the strongest predictor(s) for visitors' conservation intentions. I administered questionnaires to a sample of 609 visitors between June and July, 2015. Results indicate that caring was the strongest single predictor for visitors' conservation intentions (predicting 53% of the variance) and caring scores increased as a result of a single visit. Subjective knowledge (what people think they know) influenced curiosity and caring more than objective knowledge (what they actually know). Curiosity had the highest values pre- and postvisit among all predictors, but was not a strong predictor of visitors' conservation intentions. Overall, these results provide points for discussion and can inform conservation education messaging, visitor outreach, and programming.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject caring; conservation; curiosity; intentions; visitors; Zoo
Subject MESH Animals, Zoo; Conservation of Natural Resources; Exploratory Behavior
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name Master of Science
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital version of The Influence of Caring, Curiosity, and Knowledge on Visitors' Conservation Intentions: An Exploratory Investigation at the Tracy Aviary
Rights Management Copyright © Maria Carolina Roa 2016
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 5,489,399 bytes
Identifier etd3/id/4316
Source Original in Marriott Library Special Collections
ARK ark:/87278/s6qr85g0
Setname ir_etd
ID 197861
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6qr85g0
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