Are We Preaching to the Same Choir? A Mixed-Methods Comparison of Audiences at Animal-Themed Interpretive Facilities

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-29
Author(s):  
Susan Caplow

Interpretive programs can encourage the development of pro-environmental behavior, but visitors do not arrive as blank slates. Instead, their previous experiences interact with new programs to produce iterative change over time. Animal ambassadors can help facilitate these changes, but animal specialty organizations have largely been excluded from research exploring audiences and programs in free-choice learning settings. This study fills that gap by exploring differences between audiences at organizations with different types of missions. Using survey and interview data and value-belief-norm theory as a framework, I compare learners across three animal-themed interpretive facilities. Visitors were similar on some sociodemographic/social-psychological metrics, but they also differed in ways that reflect the institutional mission at each organization. Most notably, specialty organizations reach audiences who are sensitive to animal/ environmental welfare but are uncomfortable with zoos. Interpreters can replicate these methods at their own organizations or consider how the visitors in this study can help them better understand their own context. More knowledge about their visitors helps interpreters better design programs to achieve desired program outcomes and facilitate pro-environmental behavior.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0242148
Author(s):  
Ren Manfredi ◽  
Andrea Guazzini ◽  
Carla Anne Roos ◽  
Tom Postmes ◽  
Namkje Koudenburg

In many Western societies there are rising concerns about increasing polarization in public debate. However, statistics on private attitudes paint a different picture: the average attitudes in societies are more moderate and remain rather stable over time. The present paper presents an agent-based model of how such discrepancies between public opinion and private attitudes develop at the scale of micro-societies. Based on social psychological theorizing, the model distinguishes between two types of agents: a) those seeking to gain or maintain a good reputation and status, and b) those seeking to promote group harmony by reaching consensus. We characterized these different types of agents by different decision rules for either voicing their opinion or remaining silent, based on the behavior of their proximal network. Results of the model simulations show that even when the private attitudes of the agents are held constant, publicly expressed opinions can oscillate and (depending on the reputational concerns of individual actors) situations can occur in which minorities as well as majorities are silenced. We conclude that the macro-level consequences of micro-level decisions to either voice an opinion or remain silent provide a foundation for better understanding how public opinions are shaped. Moreover, we discuss the conditions under which public opinion could be considered a good representation of private attitudes in a society.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vince Polito ◽  
Amanda Barnier ◽  
Erik Woody

Building on Hilgard’s (1965) classic work, the domain of hypnosis has been conceptualised by Barnier, Dienes, and Mitchell (2008) as comprising three levels: (1) classic hypnotic items, (2) responding between and within items, and (3) state and trait. The current experiment investigates sense of agency across each of these three levels. Forty-six high hypnotisable participants completed an ideomotor (arm levitation), a challenge (arm rigidity) and a cognitive (anosmia) item either following a hypnotic induction (hypnosis condition) or without a hypnotic induction (wake condition). In a postexperimental inquiry, participants rated their feelings of control at three time points for each item: during the suggestion, test and cancellation phases. They also completed the Sense of Agency Rating Scale (Polito, Barnier, & Woody, 2013) for each item. Pass rates, control ratings, and agency scores fluctuated across the different types of items and for the three phases of each item; also, control ratings and agency scores often differed across participants who passed versus failed each item. Interestingly, whereas a hypnotic induction influenced the likelihood of passing items, it had no direct effect on agentive experiences. These results suggest that altered sense of agency is not a unidimensional or static quality “switched on” by hypnotic induction, but a dynamic multidimensional construct that varies across items, over time and according to whether individuals pass or fail suggestions.


Author(s):  
Konrad Huber

The chapter first surveys different types of figurative speech in Revelation, including simile, metaphor, symbol, and narrative image. Second, it considers the way images are interrelated in the narrative world of the book. Third, it notes how the images draw associations from various backgrounds, including biblical and later Jewish sources, Greco-Roman myths, and the imperial cult, and how this enriches the understanding of the text. Fourth, the chapter looks at the rhetorical impact of the imagery on readers and stresses in particular its evocative, persuasive, and parenetic function together with its emotional effect. And fifth, it looks briefly at the way reception history shows how the imagery has engaged readers over time. Thus, illustrated by numerous examples, it becomes clear how essentially the imagery of the book of Revelation constitutes and determines its theological message.


Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (s1) ◽  
pp. S273-S280
Author(s):  
Xinhe Yao ◽  
Yu Song ◽  
Peter Vink

BACKGROUND: Scents may influence the perceived comfort of an environment. There are only a few studies conducted on the relationship between scent and comfort in aircraft cabin. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this research is to explore whether relationships between scents and perceived comfort can be found for passengers in an aircraft cabin. METHODS: 276 participants joined an experiment in a Boeing 737 fuselage. The participants were divided into nine groups and each joined a session for 60 minutes with the exposure to different scents. The effect of the odor was measured by a set of questionnaires at the beginning and at the end of the session. Results of questionnaires were analyzed regarding the effects on the completion time, of the type of scents, of the intensity of the scent and on gender. RESULTS: Significant differences were found at the beginning and at the end of the experiment regarding comfort and emotion, but sometimes no relations could be established. The influence of different scents on comfort/discomfort varied and changed over time. However, in all scenarios, participant’ scores on emotion decreased. Additionally, the added scents influenced the linearity between the changes in comfort and discomfort. CONCLUSIONS: Smell could influence the perceived comfort/discomfort of aircraft passengers over time, and different types of smells have different effects on passengers. The preferences on scents are diverse, which highlights the need for personalization in aircraft cabin design.


2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donley T. Studlar

Canada is unusual among advanced industrial democracies in having some provinces which regularly have greater voter turnouts for provincial than for federal elections. Provincial and federal turnouts by province in Canada are analyzed for the 1945-1998 period using multiple regression analysis, both for each set of elections and by comparing differences between the two. Federal turnout has declined over the years but provincial turnout appears to have increased slightly. Although the effects found here largely confirm previous findings about the relative effects of different types of variables found for the Canadian federal level only, several of the political explanations previously supported in cross-national research find less support. Instead, region, population density, months since the last federal or provincial election, and season of the year generally have greater and sometimes more consistent effects. This suggests the need for more studies of turnout in democracies at sub-central levels.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 646-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rupa Banerjee ◽  
Anil Verma ◽  
Tingting Zhang

This study examines the incidence and wage effects of vertical, horizontal, and full job-education mismatch for high skilled immigrant and native-born men over a six-year period, using a Canadian longitudinal dataset. Immigrants (particularly racial minorities immigrants) are more likely to be fully mismatched than white native-born Canadians. Full mismatch lowers initial wages, especially for racial minority immigrants. Full mismatch accelerates immigrants' wage growth slightly over time, but this is not enough to narrow the immigrant wage gap over the six-year survey period. The results highlight the importance of disaggregating the different types of job-education mismatch experienced by immigrants.


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