(The College of Wooster)
In the face of urgent environmental challenges, people show insufficient concern and even less willingness to engage in sustainable behavior. However, they do value biodiversity and the natural environment, as is amply demonstrated by the large number of people who visit zoos. The zoo visit represents an important opportunity to reach a wide audience in order to increase concern and motivate sustainable behavior by capitalizing on the connection people feel to the zoo animals. Based on research from a number of zoos around the world, I'll describe this connection and discuss its potential to create change.
Susan Clayton is Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology and Chair of Environmental Studies at the College of Wooster. She has a Ph.D. in social psychology from Yale University, and is the president-elect of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Clayton is an author or editor of Conservation Psychology: Understanding and Promoting Human Care for Nature (with Gene Myers; 2nd edition 2015), the Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology (2012) and Identity and the Natural Environment (2003, with Susan Opotow), among other books. Her research focuses on the human relationship with the natural world, how it is socially constructed, and how it can be utilized to promote environmental concern.