Attitudes, Knowledge, and Behavior Toward Wildlife Among the Industrial Superpowers: United States, Japan, and Germany

Abstract

This paper examines attitudes, knowledge, and behavior toward wildlife in the United States, Japan, and Germany. These countries collectively account for some 40% of the world's gross national product, and they have a major impact on the global environment. A similar conceptual and methodological approach was used to study national samples in each country over a roughly ten‐year period. The primary conceptual approach was a typology of basic attitudes toward animals. The main methodological procedure involved closed‐ended surveys of national samples in each country. Respondents in each country had a distinctive pattern of basic attitudes, knowledge, and behavior toward wildlife and its conservation. These differences are described and interpreted in terms of the biogeographical, cultural, and historical characteristics of each country.