Anthropomorphic Strategies Promote Wildlife Conservation through Empathy: The Moderation Role of the Public Epidemic Situation

The
global illegal wildlife trade directly threatens biodiversity and leads to
disease outbreaks and epidemics. Therefore, in order to avoid the loss of
endangered species and ensure public health security, it is necessary to
intervene in illegal wildlife trade and promote public awareness of the need
for wildlife conservation. Anthropomorphism is a basic and common psychological
process in humans that plays a crucial role in determining how a person
interacts with other non-human agents. Previous research indicates that
anthropomorphizing nature entities through metaphors could increase individual
behavioral intention of wildlife conservation. However, relatively little is
known about the mechanism through which anthropomorphism influences behavioral
intention and whether social context affects the effect of anthropomorphism. This research investigated the impact of negative emotions associated
with a pandemic situation on the effectiveness of anthropomorphic strategies
for wildlife conservation across two experimental studies. Experiment 1
recruited 245 college students online and asked them to read a combination of
text and pictures as anthropomorphic materials. The results indicated that
anthropomorphic materials could increase participants’ empathy and decrease
their wildlife product consumption intention. Experiment 2 recruited 140
college students online and they were required to read the same materials as
experiment 1 after watching a video related to epidemics. The results showed that the effect of wildlife
anthropomorphization vanished if participants’ negative emotion was aroused by
the video. The
present research provides experimental evidence that anthropomorphic strategies
would be useful for boosting public support for wildlife conservation. However,
policymakers and conservation organizations must be careful about the negative
effects of the pandemic context, as the negative emotions produced by it seems
to weaken the effectiveness of anthropomorphic strategies.

全球非法野生动物贸易直接威胁生物多样性，并引发疾病暴发与流行病。因此，为避免濒危物种流失、保障公共卫生安全，有必要干预非法野生动物贸易，并提升公众对野生动物保护的认知。

拟人化（anthropomorphism）是人类一种基础且普遍的心理过程，对个体如何与其他非人类主体互动起着关键作用。既往研究表明，通过隐喻将自然实体拟人化，可提升个体参与野生动物保护的行为意向。然而，目前关于拟人化影响行为意向的内在机制，以及社会情境是否会调节拟人化的效应，相关研究仍较为匮乏。

本研究通过两项实验，探讨了大流行病相关负面情绪对野生动物保护拟人化策略有效性的影响。实验1招募了245名在线大学生，要求其阅读图文结合的拟人化材料。结果显示，拟人化材料可提升参与者的共情水平，并降低其消费野生动物制品的意向。实验2招募了140名在线大学生，要求其在观看与流行病相关的视频后，阅读与实验1相同的材料。结果表明，若参与者因视频唤起了负面情绪，则野生动物拟人化的效应会消失。

本研究提供了实验证据，证明拟人化策略有助于提升公众对野生动物保护的支持度。但政策制定者与保护组织需警惕大流行病情境的负面影响——此类情境引发的负面情绪似乎会削弱拟人化策略的有效性。