Scholarly record

ATTITUDE OF THE SOCIETY TOWARDS HUNTERS IN LATVIA

Andris Petersons

Abstract

This is a first national scale research of people’s attitude towards hunters in Latvia aiming to establish the current situation because there is a perception that the negative public attitude against hunting has increased over the past years. Attitude is one of the most important aspects of our life – a positive or negative internal thought and emotion about specific issues with an effect on behaviour. Attitude is also a type of positioning to act according to the inner state therefore we can predict behaviour of individuals if we know their attitude to the specific issue based on values. The theoretical base for this article was taken from the values and values orientation studies of Rokeach (1973) and Schwartz (2007), and values – attitude studies of Homer and Kahle (1988). In turn wildlife value orientation framework with a focus on wild animals is based on the studies of Fulton, Manfredo and Lipscomb (1996) later developed by Teel, Manfredo, Bright (2003). Hunters comprise one percent of all the people in Latvia thereby the whole society can be divided into two parts, the minority of hunters and majority of people without or with a small hunting experience. These two groups also have different wildlife value as well as different attitudes toward hunters. According to the data of national survey all respondents were divided into “utilitarians” who consider that wildlife exists for human use and enjoyment; “mutualists” who consider that humans and wildlife live side by side as parts of one big family, “pluralists” who share both issues mentioned above and take one or the other side according to the situation, and “distanced” who show little interest and the attitude of all respondents towards hunters were measured.

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