Jerry F. Luebke

Conservation Psychology created a dialog between environmental conservation and behavioral sciences. With an outsized influence by Dr. Carol Saunders, it started at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago exploring questions about the impacts of a zoo visit, and particularly how human behavior influences environmental outcomes for our planet. Here we explore how...

Zoos are increasingly turning to ambassador animal programs to address animal welfare issues and visitors’ empathic responses. However, little is known, if or how, animal handling practices and interpretation impact attendees’ perceptions of animal welfare and/or empathy. To evaluate these effects, eight ambassador animal program videos were create...

Presented results from a four-item scale that measures zoo and aquarium visitors’ dispositional empathy for animals.

Currently there are mixed results regarding the ability for media or more specifically video to increase a person's interest in conservation. However, there is a growing amount of evidence that in‐person experiences at a zoo or aquarium can increase a person's interest in conservation. The goal of the current study was to examine the difference bet...

African and Asian elephants are popular within zoos, however there is currently limited information on how viewing them impacts zoo visitors. The goal of the current study was to examine the relationship between viewing elephants in zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and zoo visitors’ reported conservation intent and perceptio...

The purpose of the present study was to explore the types of personal experiences that were related to zoo visitors’ empathic and affective reactions at an animal exhibit. Various studies have suggested the importance of emotional empathy in motivating concern for the biosphere and pro-environmental behaviors. As such, identifying visitors’ persona...

Modern zoos face increasing pressures to maintain and demonstrate both the physical and psychological well-being of animals in their care. However, the informal judgments that zoo visitors make about animal well-being may be based on criteria that are inappropriate or misleading. In this research, two self-administered questionnaires were used to e...

The global biodiversity crisis requires an engaged citizenry that provides collective support for public policies and recognizes the consequences of personal consumption decisions. Understanding the factors that affect personal engagement in proenvironmental behaviors is essential for the development of actionable conservation solutions. Zoos and a...

Abstract The opportunity to observe or interact with animals in a zoo is often vital in influencing visitors’ positive feelings towards animals and ultimately their conservation behavior. This study explores the relationship between observed animal behavior and zoo visitors’ responses. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 717 visitors...

Existe una diferencia sustancial entre la evidencia científica sobre el cambio climático antropogénico y las respuestas humanas hacia esta evidencia. Las percepciones y respuestas al cambio climático difieren entre regiones del mundo y también dentro de cada país. Por lo tanto, la información sobre las actitudes y percepciones sobre el cambio climá...

There is a substantial gap between the scientific evidence for anthropogenic climate change and the human response to this evidence. Perceptions of and responses to climate change can differ among regions of the world, as well as within countries. Therefore, information about the public's attitudes and perceptions related to climate change is essen...

Climate literacy education can occur in a variety of formal and informal learning settings across an individual's life span. There is increasing recognition that informal learning settings such as zoos and aquariums have an opportunity to greatly contribute to individuals' science learning. Here we present the results of a large-scale survey study...

Societal response to climate change has been inadequate. A perception that the issue is both physically and temporally remote may reduce concern; concern may also be affected by the political polarization surrounding the issue in the USA. A feeling of connection to nature or to animals may increase personal relevance, and a supportive social contex...

Visiting a zoo or aquarium is not only fun, but can also have a positive impact on visitors' knowledge and attitudes regarding animals and the environment. The biggest challenge, however, is for these institutions to strategically provide opportunities for cognitive and affective learning while simultaneously facilitating enjoyment and fun. Recent...

Here we describe the development and implementation of a large-scale monitoring system to systematically evaluate various Chicago Zoological Society (CZS) education programs. Our primary goal was to engage program staff in developing a consistent measurement and evaluation strategy across and within education programs. We did this by using the CZS...

There is overwhelming scientific agreement that global climate change is occurring and has been accelerated by human activity [11]. To slow the pace of climate change and its impacts, there is an immediate need for people to make informed decisions about actions in their daily lives related to global carbon emissions. Recent analyses indicate that...

The authors investigated the current practices for assessing mission-related learning outcomes at institutions that belong to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) in North America. A survey instrument was sent to 207 education directors in order to examine each institution's efforts in conducting audience research and evaluating the impact o...

The perceptions and knowledge of teachers with regard to psychotropic medication for students was investigated. The views of two groups of teachers, those who taught students with learning disabilities and those who taught students with serious emotional disturbance, were compared. Both groups of teachers reported that they felt incompetent in term...

The perceptions, knowledge, and opinions of 104 teachers of students with learning disabilities regarding medication used with their students were investigated. The students' doctors were perceived as the professionals primarily responsible for making the decision to have the student either placed on or taken off medication. The teachers indicated...

A 27-item questionnaire was used to explore the perceptions, knowledge, and opinions of 146 teachers of students with serious emotional disturbance regarding medication used with their students. The results indicated that the student's doctor was perceived as the leading professional responsible for taking steps to have the student on or off medica...

Teachers rated the achievement levels of behaviorally disordered, learning disabled, and nonhandicapped adolescents in four different academic areas: reading recognition, reading comprehension, arithmetic, and written expression. Comparisons across the three groups revealed that behaviorally disordered and learning disabled adolescents were seen as...

Teacher ratings on reading recognition, reading comprehension, arithmetic, and written expression revealed that behaviorally disordered and learning-disabled adolescents (N=200) were seen as performing significantly below expected levels of achievement. Differences between behaviorally disordered and learning-disabled students appeared to depend up...

Teacher completed Behavior Problem Checklists on 730 behaviorally disordered pupils were subjected to first- and second-order factor analyses. The first-order factor analysis replicated prior research with the BPC; the second-order analysis replicated findings with other instruments. Sex and age comparisons were examined in relation to the two broa...

Adolescent girls aged 12 through 16 years, identified as either educable mentally retarded, behaviorally disordered, learning disabled, or nonhandicapped, were rated by their teachers on the Behavior Problem Checklist. Analysis of these ratings revealed significant differences for pupil category, Behavior Problem Checklist dimension, and category-b...

Salience of sexual identity was varied in intergroup interaction for 75 female and 77 male college students. Participants rated attraction for and made attributions of sex-linked personality traits to men and women presented on slides. Under conditions of high as compared to low group salience, own group members were rated as more attractive than o...