Amerikaner mögen im Allgemeinen Wölfe – aber wenn ihre politische Zugehörigkeit aktiviert wird, kommt es im Vergleich zu einer neutralen Kontrolle zu erheblichen Veränderungen in der Wahrnehmung
https://theconversation.com/americans-generally-like-wolves-except-when-were-reminded-of-our-politics-267511
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New research today in the journal [Conservation Biology](https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.70212)
„Yeah I like wolves and want them around. Oh wait, democrats also like wolves? Well then we need to shoot them all bring back common sense!“
> When we activated people’s political identity, their attitudes toward wolves became more polarized. Democrats’ affinity for wolves increased, as did Republicans’ aversion. On the other hand, when our particants’ political identities were not activated, they generally liked wolves, regardless of their politics.
> In a follow-up experiment where we had people guess their fellow and rival party members’ attitudes toward wolves, we found this identity-based polarization was driven by people’s assumptions about their in-group but not their out-group. People incorrectly assumed others in their party held extreme views about wolves, and those assumptions in turn shaped their own attitudes toward the species.
Well that second paragraph is certainly interesting. So what’s up with the stereotype that conservatives hate wolves?
So many of these studies seem to boil down to, „conservatives value in-group affiliation and perceived collective conformance over personal beliefs.“
Hmmm, so does it correlate with nordaboos/scandiboos/thoraboos etc being left wing? They love wolves because of Norse mythology and paganism
Looks like this reporting suggests that we are in a social situation where if you tell someone the position of a person from their opposing political party you can get them to move their position on a topic.
I fear that this might lead to people believing that is more important for people to oppose whatever the other person is doing than to have their own opinion.
I’d bet that different opinions on wolves would also relate strongly to how knowledgeable somebody is on the North American model of conservation and how wolves are sourced.
It’s been a debacle in Colorado because the wolves are sourced as depredation wolves.
We’re dealing with massive moose overpopulation in wetlands that they’re not native to. The moose are destroying the wetlands and instead of issuing tags to hunters, which generate revenue and protect the wetlands; activists are calling for more wolves. Wolves that have spent their whole lives eating cattle are not going to take down a giant horned monster.
I’d also expect strong political biases between proponents of the North American model, which focuses on hunting and fishing for management and newer models which seek to reduce the role of outdoorsmen.
I used to work in N. Idaho. The people there hate wolves. Like put stickers on their trucks that say „Smoke a pack a day“ overlayed on a gun sight aimed at wolf silhouettes. A lot of their hatred for wolves stems from looking at the reintroduction of wolves as an act done by government bureaucrats from DC. Most, if not all of them, are very conservative to the point of being anti-government which is really code word for anti-liberal.
Another reason for their hatred of wolves, from their point of view (anecdotally) they see less Elk and Moose nowadays and assume there is a correlation to the reintroduction of the wolf. They think the wolves are killing all the elk and other game. But really the wolves have driven elk herds and other game to areas that are not easily accessible by vehicle. Basically, a lot of these guys are pissed they can’t just shoot something from their vehicle or find a herd somewhat nearby a road.
How does one activate a wolf’s political affiliation?
I remember one of the most impactful political ads in the 2008 election was one that attacked Sarah Palin for supporting aerial hunting of wolves.
It had footage of one of the hunts and wolves getting shot from helicopters. Generated a ton of outrage.
They should rerun this with bears. I think you’d get a different result. Democrats typically don’t live in areas rural enough to deal with wolves, but suburban ones deal with bears often now.
I’ve spoken with wolf biologists (and wildlife biologists in general who work in areas with wolf populations), who have to put up with death threats from anti wolf groups. Constant harassment and threatening phone calls. I spoke with another guy who doesn’t even work with wolves, just spends time in national parks, who had his car vandalized by one of these groups. I don’t have all the answers, but wolf conservation has become an extremely polarizing issue, to the point where wolf biologists can’t even do their jobs without dealing with violent threats from the public. Even when said biologists are working hard to find a way to work with ranchers and mitigate livestock deaths. This stuff takes time, and with the general population being so polarized, and society having no patience for these things because of instant gratification culture, it leads to this giant mess. It’s disgusting how quickly people want to report to violence over things like this. The most disgusting thing of all is how this has been warped into a left vs right political issue, which is why the polarization is so extreme.