Psychology assistant professor co-writes biodiversity study on environmental behavior

Dr. Stephanie Jett, assistant professor of psychology, recently published a study with former co-workers from the University of South Alabama that examines human behavior towards the environment in the biodiverse coastal area of Mobile and Baldwin Counties, Alabama.

The Mobile-Tensaw Delta region is often referred to as America's Amazon due to the fact it’s one of the nation’s largest, intact wilderness areas and wetland. The study, “Dominant attitudes and values toward wildlife and the environment in coastal Alabama,” was recently posted by the Society for Conservation Biology.

Jett was the only psychologist, working alongside biologists and statisticians Sarah Weber Hertel, Jana Stupavsky, Kristine Alford, Hannah R. Hicks, Andrew Heaton, Nathan Katlein, Brandon T. Hasting, Adam Stern, Andrew Y. Wang, Bin Wang, Scott Glaberman and Ylenia Chiari.

“I was brought in because I was born and raised in Mobile,” Jett said, “and they were interested in why people behave in a certain way towards the environment, which is the realm of psychology. They also wanted to create a survey measure, which is something that is also my area of expertise.”

A hotspot for biodiversity, coastal Alabama has native plants and animals that are vulnerable and need protection, according to the authors. Land and wildlife management practices in that area don’t focus on the environment. Land is often exploited for agriculture and plantation use.

“We therefore predicted that a large proportion of the population has a dominant view of the environment in which land and wildlife are primarily for human benefit,” according to the study.

To test this hypothesis, the team surveyed more than 1,300 residents in Mobile and Baldwin Counties in Alabama. They wanted to discern attitudes toward local vertebrate wildlife, knowledge of the region's biodiversity and whether individuals value protected areas where they live and work.

Hunting was one aspect used to examine the relationship between humans and the environment. They discovered that hunters, overall, view land and wildlife for human benefit more so than non-hunters. Most survey participants indicated if they came across a snake, they’d kill it regardless of whether it was venomous or not. This led the team to suggest environmental education was needed for the Southeast Alabama population in order to protect native snakes from unnecessary harm.  

Hunters and non-hunters alike—regardless of income level and education—were also not familiar with the area’s rich biodiversity or willing to invest money to protect the environment.

“Our results indicate that targeted education about the unique and rich biodiversity of Southern Alabama, compared to the rest of the United States, is needed to support successful environmental management, conservation actions and local participation,” the study stated.

Jett is now planning a wider study to would include the work of students at Georgia College.

In the next few years, she hopes to tie this work in with another project her students did in 2019-20 on knowledge and attitudes toward sustainability. Students in the Jett's Experimental and Comparative Cognition lab used a variety of participants—including Georgia College peers—to conduct this survey. They found certain personality traits, like narcissism and conscientiousness, were related to different perceptions of sustainability and the importance of government policies being passed by to promote sustainability.

Students may add personality traits to the biodiversity study and expand the territorial area to include a wider, nationwide sample.