Mid Sweden University

Sustainable wildlife management should, amongst others, safeguard human health. This study concerns rural residents’ perceived quality of life and the potential effect of large carnivores (LCs) on psychological health outcomes (life satisfaction, anxiety symptoms, and exhaustion). One group of rural residents that appears to be especially vulnerable when the number and range of LCs increase is sheep owners. 279 participants (rural residents without livestock n = 114, livestock owners without sheep n = 103, and sheep owners n = 62) completed a survey on rural living also including established instruments to assess psychological health outcomes. Rural residents without livestock were mainly positive while sheep owners were mainly negative towards presence of LCs. Sheep owners reported lower life satisfaction, more anxiety symptoms, and more exhaustion symptoms as compared to other livestock owners and rural residents as a group. However elevated stress and anxiety symptoms among sheep owners seem to be an outcome of accumulated stress due not only to the presence of LCs, but also due to problems to reach the break even point economically. The results are discussed in terms of the overall situation for livestock owner. 

People often visit natural settings for recreation and psychological restoration. This study aims to improve understanding of how exposure to and experiences of mammalian wildlife in local natural settings can permit and promote recreation and restoration. Randomly sampled residents in three regions of Sweden (N = 303) with varying presence of fear-relevant species (wolf, wild boar) and fear-irrelevant species (roe deer, squirrel) completed a questionnaire. Squirrel and roe deer were rated significantly higher than wolf and wild boar for anticipated positive feelings and restoration outcomes, and significantly lower for negative feelings and avoidance of natural settings. The possibility of exposure explained little of the variation in the restoration variables, whereas the experiences anticipated with an animal encounter contributed substantially to explanation. Vulnerability seems to counteract the restorative benefit of fascination. Wildlife conservation efforts and public health initiatives may find practical utility in distinguishing between potential exposure and anticipated experience when designing interventions. 

Wildlife might be important to psychologically restorative values and disvalues of nature, as interactions with wildlife could trigger both positive and negative feelings. Research on positive experiences of human-wildlife interactions has largely involved participants who voluntarily sought out wildlife experiences or it has addressed encounters with non-threatening animals in urban green spaces. Less is known about the opportunities for psychological restoration in landscapes shared with mammals that are perceived to pose a threat to human activities and health. This study provides a nuanced understanding of the role of wildlife in public perceptions of the restorative potential and experience of psychological restoration in local natural settings. Twenty-eight participants (15 women, 13 men, 18-75 years) took part in focus group interviews subject to a reflexive thematic analysis. As an analytical framework, we used a theoretical model for how people appraise the relevance, implications, coping potential and norm congruence of human-wildlife interactions and how such appraisals may support or hinder the restoration experienced in local natural settings. Relevance appraisals revealed shifts in consideration of the presence of wildlife from an integrated part of the natural scenery (background) to a distinct figure (foreground). Implication appraisals revealed that wildlife encounters would hinder the experienced psychological restoration if the animal was appraised as dangerous, disgusting, causing a nuisance or destructive. Wildlife encounters would promote restoration if the animal displayed attractive traits, features or fascinating behaviour or movements, and if it opened engaging interaction situations. Coping strategies perceived as feasible to deal with negative implications of wildlife involved avoidance of the local natural setting, preparatory behaviour displayed before a visit and precautionary behaviour displayed during the visit. Important public health effects might be gained if wildlife policy and management explicitly consider what animals mean to the perceived restorative potential of local natural settings.Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Forekomst av vilt levande djur kan ha betydelse for manniskors mojlighet till mental aterhamtning i naturen eftersom djurlivet kan ge upphov till bade positiva och negativa kanslor. Tidigare forskning om positiva upplevelser av vilt har foretradesvis handlat om situationer dar manniskor medvetet har sokt sig till en plats for att se djur, fokuserat djurarter som vanligtvis inte betraktas som farliga for manniskor, eller varit begransade till smavilt i urbana gronomraden. Daremot saknas kunskap om mojligheter till mental aterhamtning i naturomraden med storre daggdjur som ocksa kan upplevas utgora ett hot mot manniskors aktiviteter och halsa. Den har studien bidrar till en nyanserad forstaelse av viltets betydelse for allmanhetens upplevda mojligheter till mental aterhamtning i lokala naturomraden. Vi intervjuade 28 deltagare (15 kvinnor, 13 man, 18-75 ar) i fokusgrupper. Intervjuerna analyserades med sk reflexiv tematisk analys. I analyserna utgick vi ifran en teoretisk modell for manniskors bedomning av relevans och konsekvenser av interaktioner mellan manniska och vilt samt tillgang till strategier for att hantera sadana interaktioner och samstammighet med normer i dessa situationer. Modellen beskriver ocksa hur bedomningar kan stodja eller hindra upplevelsen av mental aterhamtning. Deltagarnas bedomning av viltets relevans for mental aterhamtning varierade avseende om djuren betraktades som en integrerad eller en unik framtradande del av naturlandskapet. Bedomningen av konsekvenser visade att moten med vilt levande djur upplevdes hindra den mentala aterhamtningen om djuret ansags vara farligt eller ackligt, orsaka olagenhet eller forstora for manniskor. Moten med vilt upplevdes stodja aterhamtning om djuret ansags ha ett attraktivt utseende eller positiva egenskaper, fascinerande beteenden eller rorelsemonster, eller om djuret skapade sarskilt engagerande situationer. De strategier som deltagarna bedomde som mojliga och tillgangliga for att hantera negativa konsekvenser av vilt var undvikande av lokala naturomraden, forberedelser som vidtogs innan ett eventuellt besok i naturomradet och forsiktighetsatgarder under tiden deltagarna vistades i naturomradet. Det kan finnas positiva effekter for folkhalsan om viltpolicy och forvaltning explicit beaktar betydelsen av vilt for manniskors upplevda mojlighet till mental aterhamtning i lokala naturomraden. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

How does the likelihood of encountering wildlife affect residents’ expectations about psychological restoration when visiting a local natural setting, and their choices among settings for future recreation? Do urban and rural residents differ in such expectations and choices? We addressed these questions in a web-based experiment with 223 adult residents randomly sampled from urban and rural areas in each of three regions in Sweden. Residents in all six areas can encounter fear-irrelevant wildlife (roe deer, squirrel) near the home, but the presence of fear-relevant wildlife (wolf, wild boar) differs across the areas. The respondents read scenarios concerning encounters with each of these four animals during recreational visits to a nearby natural setting. The scenarios varied in how frequently the person could expect to encounter each animal across visits (never, sometimes, often). For all 12 scenarios, respondents answered questions about anticipated experiences and restoration outcomes, and the effect of encounter likelihood on future recreational setting choices. Across all areas, with all outcomes, increased likelihood of encounters with the wolves and wild boar detracted from anticipated restorative potential, whereas increased likelihood of encounters with roe deer and squirrel enhanced anticipated restorative potential. A similar pattern showed in recreational setting choices. A domination wildlife value orientation moderated the effects of encounter likelihood for wolf and wild boar, whereas a mutualistic orientation moderated the effects of encounter likelihood for squirrel and roe deer. Our results suggest that wildlife management and public health practice could work together not only to address the fears of residents, but also to enhance the restorative quality of local natural settings by protecting wildlife. 

The relationship between decoding ability (Emotion recognition accuracy, ERA) for negative and positive emotion expressions from only video, only audio and audio-video stimuli and the skill to understand peoples' unspoken thoughts and feelings (Empathic accuracy, EA) was tested. Participants (N = 101) from three groups (helping professionals with and without therapy training as well as non-helping professionals) saw or heard recordings of narrations of a negative event by four different persons. Based on either audio-video or audio-only recordings, the participants indicated for given time points what they thought the narrator was feeling and thinking while speaking about the event. A Bayesian regression model regressing group and ERA scores on EA scores was showing weak support only for the EA scores for ratings of unspoken feelings from audio only recordings. In a subsample, the quality of self-experienced social interactions in everyday life was assessed with a diary. The analysis of ERA and EA scores in relation to diary scores did not indicate much correspondence. The results are discussed in terms of relations between skills in decoding emotions using different test paradigms and contextual factors.

Farmers who keep livestock in large carnivore areas are exposed to threat of predation directly impacting on finances and workload as well as the associated psychological stress indirectly impacting on farmers well-being. So far, little is known about such stress responses. The concept of “stress” or “stress reaction” is often used as an undifferentiated umbrella concept for the experience of negative emotional episodes. However, the stress reactions could be divided into cognitive, physiological, and behavioural aspects. This study aimed to develop and apply a theory-based approach to identify stress responses among sheep farmers in the Swedish “wolf-region.” A thematic analysis of interviews conducted with sheep farmers showed ample support for stress responses among the informants in relation to large carnivores and their management, although the interviews were conducted with a different focal topic. The findings support the idea that stress responses could be categorised into cognitive, physiological, and behavioural aspects. This distinction would help to identify and fully understand the cumulative impact of stress from the presence of large carnivores on farmers’ well-being. 

Many call for a broad approach to valuation of nature’s contribution to people, one that provides a contextualized understanding of what may be experienced as a value in different cultures, groups and settings. In the present paper we address contributions of nature to psychological well-being as realized through restorative processes during encounters with wildlife. Although restorative benefits of nature experience have received much consideration, sparse attention has been given to the role of the presence or absence of different animals in the settings investigated. The presence of a liked species may increase appreciation for and engagement with a natural setting, but fear of encountering some species may counter the desire to visit a setting with otherwise high restorative quality. This paper proposes a psychological framework for understanding how wildlife may contribute to or hinder people’s opportunities to restore in local natural settings. The framework addresses the transaction between the individual and their surroundings, making use of an appraisal theory of emotion and theories about the restorative benefits of nature experience. We focus upon encounters in landscapes shared by humans and wildlife, and we elaborate on our reasoning with scenarios from Sweden involving local people’s appraisal of wolves and roe deer. An integrated understanding of the psychological processes at work would facilitate communication and decision-making about the contribution of wildlife in nature conservation and management. 

Emotion decoding competence can be addressed in different ways. In this study, clinical psychology, nursing, or social work students narrated a 2.5–3 min story about a self-experienced emotional event and also listened to another student’s story. Participants were video recorded during the session. Participants then annotated their own recordings regarding their own thoughts and feelings, and they rated recordings by other participants regarding their thoughts and feelings [empathic accuracy, EA, task]. Participants further completed two emotion recognition accuracy (ERA) tests that differed in complexity. The results showed that even though significant correlations were found between the emotion recognition tests, the tests did not positively predict empathic accuracy scores. These results raise questions regarding the extent to which ERA tests tap the competencies that underlie EA. Different possibilities to investigate the consequences of method choices are discussed. 

Large carnivores elicit strong emotional reactions, which could influence consensus or social conflicts between persons promoting wildlife conservation and people who suffer from its negative consequences. Interventions to prevent carnivore attacks on domestic animals are intended to promote coexistence between people and carnivores, but could fail to mitigate fear and social conflicts if emotions and perspectives of intervention end users are not given careful consideration. We conducted focus group interviews with animal owners in Sweden and applied a framework of the appraisal theory of emotion to gain a nuanced understanding of their appraisal of intervention use. The analysis identified that appraisals occur at two different levels. The first process related to appraisals of carnivore presence and the second process related to appraisals of intervention use. The interventions can provide an opportunity to facilitate the animal owners’ coping with carnivore presence and thereby reduce their experienced anxiety of carnivore attacks. However, if animal owners are presented with interventions which they consider irrelevant, that have implications with which they cannot cope, or that are incongruent with the animal owners’ norms, then the promotion of interventions can also generate frustration and negative emotions. As such, interventions have the potential to either mitigate or undermine wildlife-related conflicts. In the wider context, taking the perspective of the individual becomes essential, and animal owners’ experiences and appraisals of intervention use must be acknowledged to allow development of social trust and empathetic dialog between stakeholders in the future. 

Conflicts over wildlife and their potential impacts on human practices and livelihoods are widespread. Large carnivore predation on livestock often becomes a contested topic which has led to global declines in carnivore numbers over centuries. To minimise impacts of carnivores on human livelihoods and allow conservation, various interventions are used to prevent attacks. However, these interventions can only be effective if they are used and implemented. According to the Technology Acceptance Model, end user acceptance depends on perceived usefulness and ease of use. This study investigates the former as believed effect through a modified version of the Potential for Conflict Index. Using a web-based questionnaire we assess acceptance levels and believed effect of interventions intended to prevent carnivore predation on livestock, dogs, and reindeer among animal owners/keepers and members of the public in Sweden. The analysis shows that believed effect is a prerequisite for acceptance of an intervention, but not a guarantee. Interventions promoted by authorities are in some cases highly acceptable to users and the public, but in other cases believed contra-productive and are opposed by the end users. Active promotion of the latter may undermine mitigation efforts. Carnivore removal is generally more acceptable to animal owners than to members of the public. The results are useful to minimise conflicts within carnivore management and increase transparency and success of conservation. The results are discussed in relation to how similar questions may be approached in other systems using combined measures of believed effect, accept-intention, and the Potential for Conflict Index.