Abstract

This study analyses psychological antecedents of feelings of fear of wolves in a proportional sample of the Swedish population (national sample, n = 545) and in a sample of people in counties with wolf presence (regional sample, n = 1,892). Structural equation modelling of survey data suggests a dual pathway to self-reported fear. One path encompasses the appraisal of the environmental context operationalised as a potential wolf encounter. The second path concerns the appraisal of the social context assessed as social trust in managing authorities. The relative importance of the paths differs between the national and the regional sample, and between people in the administrative centre of the region and the regional periphery. We show that the public's fear of wolves should be addressed both at an individual level, focusing on situations with potential encounters, and at a collective level, by strengthening the trust between the public and authorities, and regional variation should be considered.

Keywords

Fear; Appraisal; Trust; Wolves

Published in

European Journal of Wildlife Research
2016, Volume: 62, number: 6, pages: 749-760

SLU Authors

• Ericsson, Göran

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Future Forests (until Jan 2017)
SLU Future Forests


UKÄ Subject classification

Fish and Wildlife Management
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-016-1054-5

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/79579