Research in Progress: Does Environmental Interpretation Influence Behaviour through Knowledge or Affect?

Interpretation is frequently seen as effective in managing tourist-wildlife interactions because it increases awareness about a species and encourages a conservation ethic (Beckmann 1991, Moscardo 1998). Interpretation has been advocated as the most effective management strategy for wildlife encounters (Orams 1996). Implicit in this belief is that by changing people's attitude, interpretation will change their behaviour (Roggenbuck 1992). Petty et al. (1997) define an attitude as an evaluation of an object (eg. people, animal, etc.) that exists along a dimension ranging from positive to negative. In reflecting on attitude change it helps to conceptualise an attitude as comprised of three main components: affect, cognition, and behaviour.