Exploring the role of implicit and explicit attitudes in human-wolf coexistence

Understanding human attitudes towards wolves is essential for managing coexistence during wolves’ recent recolonization in many European countries. While possible factors for the polarization around wolves have been identified, prior research relied almost entirely on self-report measures, which predominantly reflect explicit attitudes. Implicit attitudes, however, have been largely neglected. They influence behaviour outside awareness and have been central in the study of human ingroup-outgroup behaviour, stereotypes, and prejudice formation. Given the stereotypes and symbolisms attached to wolves in our culture and the possible behavioural predispositions we may have retained toward apex predators, we believe that understanding these implicit processes, their mechanisms, and origins is crucial for understanding and navigating the polarized dynamics. In this talk, we will present four studies on explicit and implicit attitude measures during the interaction with real and pictured wolves that may help to better understand our attitudes and behaviour towards wolves. Implicit attitudes were assessed via (psycho-)physiological (neural activity, heart rate, cortisol) and behavioural measures (body language, facial expressions, implicit attitude test), respectively. Dog stimuli were used as a comparison to assess effect specificity. In the first experiment, we used neuroimaging to compare participants’ amygdala activation (as a proxy for an affective threat response) when viewing wolf or dog pictures to their explicit ratings of the pictures’ threat levels. The findings revealed a divergence between explicit ratings and implicit neural responses: while wolves were explicitly rated as more threatening than dogs, the brain responses did not match this difference and suggested only minimal differences between species. In the second to fourth experiment, humans physically interacted with wolves and dogs, hand-raised and kept in similar ways. This allowed us to explore the relationship between direct experience and implicit attitudes, behaviour, and physiological reactions. First preliminary results indicate that implicit reactions to dogs and wolves differed even after years of positive daily experience with both species, with experience only mediating the ratio of positive and negative facial expressions towards the species. These first insights show that investigating implicit alongside explicit attitudes holds great promise in helping us better understand the human dimension and polarisation around wolves.

• Core Facility Wolf Science Center