Back to nature! Or not? Urban dwellers and their forest in berlin

What type of urban nature do urban dwellers prefer? Contributing to this ongoing discussion, this study presents the results of an internet and on-site field survey on general use and visitation pattern conducted in Grunewald Forest via a questionnaire; this is a 3000 ha area southwest of Berlin, Germany. The questions were developed in close cooperation with the local forestry administration and targeted the uncovering of user-specific needs and climate change-related conflicts. More than 1300 valid answers were analyzed, which made it possible to (1) identify and characterize different visitor groups, (2) identify reasons for an urban forest visit, (3) uncover the needs for infrastructure and information, (4) reflect on the survey methods used. The interesting findings include (I) the reasons for a visit highly coincide with forest-related properties in particular; however, the infrastructure preferences reveal the desire for managed greenspace; and (II) the answers obtained from the field differ significantly from those obtained online in various respects. The differences found suggest that the survey, with both online and on-site answers, is a major advantage for future studies regarding urban green infrastructure use. These results can be fruitfully used to inform urban forest management regarding user needs and create a better forestry information policy in the future.     

Exploring the role of gain versus loss framing and point of reference in messages to reduce human–bear conflicts

As a fundamental social process, communication can help natural resource managers prevent or manage many human–wildlife conflicts, but research on how to present effectively information that contributes to the reduction of human–wildlife conflicts is scant. We examined the effectiveness of point-of-reference and gain-versus-loss framing in heightening intentions to prevent human–black bear conflicts. We randomly assigned 811 participants to one of six message conditions as part of a 3 (point of reference: family versus community versus bear) × 2 (message framing: gain versus loss) between-subjects factorial design or a control condition. The findings show that a match between loss framing and low-construal referencing point (e.g., family-referencing), and a congruency between gain framing and high-construal referencing point (e.g., bear-referencing) lead to higher risk perception and behavioral intentions. This study provides guidance for continuing research and design of risk communication in the context of human–bear conflicts.     

THE IMPACT OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC FEEDBACK ON WORKER PERFORMANCE—EVIDENCE FROM THE LAB

Previous empirical studies have demonstrated the positive incentive effects of private performance feedback as well as public recognition on work performance. In our laboratory experiments, we directly compare these two feedback schemes. Moreover, we compare their incentive effects across two real‐effort tasks that differ in regard to how interesting the subjects perceive working on them. We find that both feedback schemes lead to performance increases compared to the tasks' respective control treatments. In particular subjects' ability and a positive interim feedback enhance performance. Competitive preferences significantly affect performance only in the less enjoyable and challenging task. (JEL C9, J3, M1)