Preaching to more than the choir: Obstacles to communicating broadly about pollinator conservation

Lara G. Zwarun, Communication and Media, University of Missouri - St. Louis, St. Louis, MO and Gerardo R. Camilo, Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO

Background/Question/Methods
The loss of pollinator diversity is a threat to food security worldwide, and exacerbated by urbanization. For scientific solutions to be implemented, people need to be aware of and support them. This includes not only scientists and policy makers, but ordinary citizens who maintain plots of land and have a say in governance of their cities. They are not necessarily informed or interested in conservation, and may have other concerns with respect to care of their property.
To craft effective messages that reach a broad audience requires understanding how people think about and perceive ecological diversity and aesthetics in lawns, as well as consideration of how messages are designed and delivered. The Elaboration Likelihood Model predicts that messages are processed differently depending on people’s ability and motivation to give them careful consideration. To determine urban residents’ attitudes about pollinator loss and lawn care, and how likely they are to attend to messages on the topic, we conducted three virtual focus groups in which participants evaluated images of lawns with different levels of plant diversity.
Results/Conclusions
We interviewed 15 participants of varying age, race, and socioeconomic background, from neighborhoods in North St Louis that have been historically overlooked in academic research. The majority of participants were unaware of what pollinators are or how they are relevant to food production. They report that when obtaining plants for their lawns, they are primarily interested in ease of maintenance; few care about native plants. Participant responses to images of highly manicured lawns were universally positive, consistent with comments that while people don’t always love mowing their lawn, they make sure not to go very long between mowings. Images of homes with greater plant diversity were perceived as not being neat or “well-kept.” Participants also report being aware of what their neighbors are doing with their lawns, and are under the impression that their neighbors care what they do with theirs. These results illustrate the social pressure people feel with their lawns. Although our small sample size limits our ability to generalize, findings suggest that citizen support for sustainable practices cannot be obtained simply by providing scientific information about the topic.