Effects of relational and instrumental messaging on human perception of rattlesnakes

We tested the effects of relational and instrumental message strategies on US residents’ perception of rattlesnakes—animals that tend to generate feelings of fear, disgust, or hatred but are nevertheless key members of healthy ecosystems. We deployed an online survey to social media users (n=1,182) to describe perceptions of rattlesnakes and assess the change after viewing a randomly selected relational or instrumental video message. An 8–item, pre– and post– Rattlesnake Perception Test (RPT) evaluated perception variables along emotional, knowledge, and behavioral gradients on a 5–point Likert scale; the eight responses were combined to produce an Aggregate Rattlesnake Perception (ARP) score for each participant. We found that people from Abrahamic religions (i.e., Christianity, Judaism, Islam) and those identifying as female were associated with low initial perceptions of rattlesnakes, whereas agnostics and individuals residing in the Midwest region and in rural residential areas had ..., , , This README file was generated on 2024-03-18 by Zackary Graham.

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: Effects of relational and instrumental messaging on human perception of rattlesnakes

2. Author Information
A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: Zackary J. Loughman
Institution: West Liberty University
Address: West Liberty, WV, USA
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

3. Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date): 2020-2022

4. Geographic location of data collection: Online Survey

5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: Herpteological Society
SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

6. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain

7. Links to publications that cite or use the data:

8. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: None

9. Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: None

10. Was data de...