Robyn S Wilson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3709495 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robyn S Wilson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robyn S |
| FAMILY NAME | Wilson |
| SIGNATURE | WILSON R S |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0092-9632 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 25 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Climate-Exacerbated Impacts May Drive Maladaptive Action in Agriculture
In the eastern Corn Belt of the United States, climate change is projected to bring warmer and wetter conditions, with more variability in the seasonal timing of rainfall, creating a multitude of challenges for agricultural production. While there are multiple adaptations to reduce the vulnerability of production to a changing climate, these adaptations have varying implications for other ecosystem services such as soil health, carbon sequestrati…
Factors that contribute to trustworthiness across levels of authority in wildland fire incident management teams
Adaptation is context specific
Research note
Managing wildlife diseases is a constant challenge in wildlife management and may require increasing attention as climate change increases the range, spread, and transmission cycles of some of these diseases in North America. The present study quantified hunters’ compliance with chronic wasting disease (CWD) risk-reduction practices across 26 deer management units (DMUs) in Ohio. We assessed self-reported, typical deer processing behaviors among …
Why Do we Conserve
Recent reviews of the agricultural conservation adoption literature find few definitive and consistent predictors of adoption across practices. We propose that these inconsistencies may be the result of statistical models failing to account for psychological mechanisms. Such mechanisms can link farm and farmer characteristics to adoption by highlighting not just what is important, but why these characteristics matter. We illustrate a simple, but …
Conservation behavior over time
Both analysis and feelings? The influence of risk beliefs on holistic risk judgments through dual systems using the Essa model
Considerable previous research has examined factors that make up risk perception (its content), and the mechanisms through which risk is perceived (the process(es)). Content-based models have the advantage of identifying specific beliefs that may be out of line with expert judgments, while process-based models are better able to isolate specific mechanisms through which beliefs operate. Despite the advantages of both types, to date most models of…
Exploring the mechanisms behind farmers’ perceptions of nutrient loss risk
From incremental to transformative adaptation in individual responses to climate-exacerbated hazards
Extending a broadly applicable measure of risk perception
Many empirical studies that inform research, policy and practice surrounding hazards and risk and concerned with how members of the public perceive risk. However, these studies often assess perceived risk using a diverse range of either very general measures or measures of specific subsidiary concepts (for instance, the severity of consequences or the likelihood of occurrence). Previous research by Wilson and others has suggested that perceived r…
Developing a Broadly Applicable Measure of Risk Perception
Decades of research identify risk perception as a largely intuitive and affective construct, in contrast to the more deliberative assessments of probability and consequences that form the foundation of risk assessment. However, a review of the literature reveals that many of the risk perception measures employed in survey research with human subjects are either generic in nature, not capturing any particular affective, probabilistic, or consequen…
Do people disagree with themselves? Exploring the internal consistency of complex, unfamiliar, and risky decisions
It is commonly accepted that people disagree with one another. In this article, we present results that suggest people may disagree with themselves. Using eight decision-making contexts ranging in familiarity, complexity, and risk, we show that a nationally representative sample (n = 1874) of respondents made choices that were inconsistent across two complimentary methods of eliciting preferences. We show that on average individuals demonstrate h…
The Symbolic Wolf
Charismatic wildlife can be difficult to manage due to the controversies they generate among stakeholders, which may be rooted in their symbolic meaning. Using construal-level theory, we coded the images of gray wolves mentioned by respondents to a national survey (n = 621) and an issue public survey (n = 447) as symbolic (abstract) or corporeal (concrete). We analyzed the relationship between these representations of wolves and several perceptio…
Reframing climate change assessments around risk
Climate change is a risk management challenge for society, with uncertain but potentially severe outcomes affecting natural and human systems, across generations. Managing climate-related risks will be more difficult without a base of knowledge and practice aimed at identifying and evaluating specific risks, and their likelihood and consequences, as well as potential actions to promote resilience in the face of these risks. We suggest three impro…
The perceived psychological distance of climate change impacts and its influence on support for adaptation policy
Shared visions, future challenges
Walpole, E. H., E. Toman, R. S. Wilson, and M. Stidham. 2017. Shared visions, future challenges: a case study of three Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program locations. Ecology and Society 22(2):35. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09248-220235
Human adaptations in food, energy, and water systems
Determining Where the Wild Things will be
We review recent empirical efforts to understand human tolerance for large, terrestrial carnivores, and highlight how psychological theory on hazard acceptance can help conservation scientists explain, and ultimately increase, human tolerance for these species. For hazards in general, and for carnivores in particular, the majority of variation in acceptability judgments can be explained by the perceptions of risks and benefits associated with the…
Identifying the challenges of promoting ecological weed management (EWM) in organic agroecosystems through the lens of behavioral decision making
The Role of Affect in Public Support and Opposition to Wolf Management
Individuals process information through two systems: the experiential system, containing affect and emotion, and the analytic system, containing logic and normative rules. Both are involved in decision making, and expected to help explain choices to support or oppose wildlife-related policies. In the present study, an Internet survey of motivated, informed individuals is used to investigate the role of both systems in wolf recovery policy choices…
Including growers in the “food safety” conversation
Why less is more
Previous research indicates that the affective nature of the problem context can override gains in the evaluability of risk attributes brought on by side‐by‐side comparisons of two problems. Specifically, in a joint evaluation, an affect‐rich problem will be given greater management preference than an affect‐neutral problem even when the risk is significantly greater for the neutral problem. A series of new experiments were conducted to explore t…
Application of Risk Concepts to Wildlife Management
The degree to which professionals can improve wildlife management processes and outcomes depends in part on their ability to integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines, including those that detail how people interpret and respond to wildlife-related risks. Better integration of risk considerations into wildlife management can advance managers' understanding of stakeholders and the knowledge base used for decision-making. This article introduce…
Assessing the Impact of Decision Frame and Existing Attitudes on Support for Wolf Restoration in the United States
This article examines (a) the effect of previous restoration success and communication vividness on support for future wolf restoration efforts, (b) differentiates between the effect of these constructs and pre-existing attitudes, and (c) provides insight into improving communications about high-profile species restoration. Data were obtained from an online experiment conducted with U.S. residents in 2008. Attitudes toward protecting endangered s…
When Less is More
Recent research involving the evaluability hypothesis has focused on how the presentation of hard to evaluate or easy to evaluate attributes influences preferences for options in either separate or joint evaluations. One explanation for the weight that an attribute carries during a decision is related to the ease with which the value of that attribute can be mapped into an affective frame of reference. In other words, affect helps a decision make…
Extending a broadly applicable measure of risk perception
Many empirical studies that inform research, policy and practice surrounding hazards and risk and concerned with how members of the public perceive risk. However, these studies often assess perceived risk using a diverse range of either very general measures or measures of specific subsidiary concepts (for instance, the severity of consequences or the likelihood of occurrence). Previous research by Wilson and others has suggested that perceived r…
The perceived psychological distance of climate change impacts and its influence on support for adaptation policy
When Less is More
Recent research involving the evaluability hypothesis has focused on how the presentation of hard to evaluate or easy to evaluate attributes influences preferences for options in either separate or joint evaluations. One explanation for the weight that an attribute carries during a decision is related to the ease with which the value of that attribute can be mapped into an affective frame of reference. In other words, affect helps a decision make…
The Symbolic Wolf
Charismatic wildlife can be difficult to manage due to the controversies they generate among stakeholders, which may be rooted in their symbolic meaning. Using construal-level theory, we coded the images of gray wolves mentioned by respondents to a national survey (n = 621) and an issue public survey (n = 447) as symbolic (abstract) or corporeal (concrete). We analyzed the relationship between these representations of wolves and several perceptio…
Including growers in the “food safety” conversation
Why Do we Conserve
Recent reviews of the agricultural conservation adoption literature find few definitive and consistent predictors of adoption across practices. We propose that these inconsistencies may be the result of statistical models failing to account for psychological mechanisms. Such mechanisms can link farm and farmer characteristics to adoption by highlighting not just what is important, but why these characteristics matter. We illustrate a simple, but …
Do people disagree with themselves? Exploring the internal consistency of complex, unfamiliar, and risky decisions
It is commonly accepted that people disagree with one another. In this article, we present results that suggest people may disagree with themselves. Using eight decision-making contexts ranging in familiarity, complexity, and risk, we show that a nationally representative sample (n = 1874) of respondents made choices that were inconsistent across two complimentary methods of eliciting preferences. We show that on average individuals demonstrate h…
Conservation behavior over time
Both analysis and feelings? The influence of risk beliefs on holistic risk judgments through dual systems using the Essa model
Considerable previous research has examined factors that make up risk perception (its content), and the mechanisms through which risk is perceived (the process(es)). Content-based models have the advantage of identifying specific beliefs that may be out of line with expert judgments, while process-based models are better able to isolate specific mechanisms through which beliefs operate. Despite the advantages of both types, to date most models of…
Exploring the mechanisms behind farmers’ perceptions of nutrient loss risk
Shared visions, future challenges
Walpole, E. H., E. Toman, R. S. Wilson, and M. Stidham. 2017. Shared visions, future challenges: a case study of three Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program locations. Ecology and Society 22(2):35. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09248-220235
Identifying the challenges of promoting ecological weed management (EWM) in organic agroecosystems through the lens of behavioral decision making
Why less is more
Previous research indicates that the affective nature of the problem context can override gains in the evaluability of risk attributes brought on by side‐by‐side comparisons of two problems. Specifically, in a joint evaluation, an affect‐rich problem will be given greater management preference than an affect‐neutral problem even when the risk is significantly greater for the neutral problem. A series of new experiments were conducted to explore t…
When Less is More
Recent research involving the evaluability hypothesis has focused on how the presentation of hard to evaluate or easy to evaluate attributes influences preferences for options in either separate or joint evaluations. One explanation for the weight that an attribute carries during a decision is related to the ease with which the value of that attribute can be mapped into an affective frame of reference. In other words, affect helps a decision make…
Application of Risk Concepts to Wildlife Management
The degree to which professionals can improve wildlife management processes and outcomes depends in part on their ability to integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines, including those that detail how people interpret and respond to wildlife-related risks. Better integration of risk considerations into wildlife management can advance managers' understanding of stakeholders and the knowledge base used for decision-making. This article introduce…
Assessing the Impact of Decision Frame and Existing Attitudes on Support for Wolf Restoration in the United States
This article examines (a) the effect of previous restoration success and communication vividness on support for future wolf restoration efforts, (b) differentiates between the effect of these constructs and pre-existing attitudes, and (c) provides insight into improving communications about high-profile species restoration. Data were obtained from an online experiment conducted with U.S. residents in 2008. Attitudes toward protecting endangered s…
Why less is more
Previous research indicates that the affective nature of the problem context can override gains in the evaluability of risk attributes brought on by side‐by‐side comparisons of two problems. Specifically, in a joint evaluation, an affect‐rich problem will be given greater management preference than an affect‐neutral problem even when the risk is significantly greater for the neutral problem. A series of new experiments were conducted to explore t…
The Role of Affect in Public Support and Opposition to Wolf Management
Individuals process information through two systems: the experiential system, containing affect and emotion, and the analytic system, containing logic and normative rules. Both are involved in decision making, and expected to help explain choices to support or oppose wildlife-related policies. In the present study, an Internet survey of motivated, informed individuals is used to investigate the role of both systems in wolf recovery policy choices…
Including growers in the “food safety” conversation
Determining Where the Wild Things will be
We review recent empirical efforts to understand human tolerance for large, terrestrial carnivores, and highlight how psychological theory on hazard acceptance can help conservation scientists explain, and ultimately increase, human tolerance for these species. For hazards in general, and for carnivores in particular, the majority of variation in acceptability judgments can be explained by the perceptions of risks and benefits associated with the…
Identifying the challenges of promoting ecological weed management (EWM) in organic agroecosystems through the lens of behavioral decision making
Human adaptations in food, energy, and water systems
Reframing climate change assessments around risk
Climate change is a risk management challenge for society, with uncertain but potentially severe outcomes affecting natural and human systems, across generations. Managing climate-related risks will be more difficult without a base of knowledge and practice aimed at identifying and evaluating specific risks, and their likelihood and consequences, as well as potential actions to promote resilience in the face of these risks. We suggest three impro…
The perceived psychological distance of climate change impacts and its influence on support for adaptation policy
Shared visions, future challenges
Walpole, E. H., E. Toman, R. S. Wilson, and M. Stidham. 2017. Shared visions, future challenges: a case study of three Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program locations. Ecology and Society 22(2):35. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09248-220235
The Symbolic Wolf
Charismatic wildlife can be difficult to manage due to the controversies they generate among stakeholders, which may be rooted in their symbolic meaning. Using construal-level theory, we coded the images of gray wolves mentioned by respondents to a national survey (n = 621) and an issue public survey (n = 447) as symbolic (abstract) or corporeal (concrete). We analyzed the relationship between these representations of wolves and several perceptio…
Developing a Broadly Applicable Measure of Risk Perception
Decades of research identify risk perception as a largely intuitive and affective construct, in contrast to the more deliberative assessments of probability and consequences that form the foundation of risk assessment. However, a review of the literature reveals that many of the risk perception measures employed in survey research with human subjects are either generic in nature, not capturing any particular affective, probabilistic, or consequen…
Do people disagree with themselves? Exploring the internal consistency of complex, unfamiliar, and risky decisions
It is commonly accepted that people disagree with one another. In this article, we present results that suggest people may disagree with themselves. Using eight decision-making contexts ranging in familiarity, complexity, and risk, we show that a nationally representative sample (n = 1874) of respondents made choices that were inconsistent across two complimentary methods of eliciting preferences. We show that on average individuals demonstrate h…
From incremental to transformative adaptation in individual responses to climate-exacerbated hazards
Extending a broadly applicable measure of risk perception
Many empirical studies that inform research, policy and practice surrounding hazards and risk and concerned with how members of the public perceive risk. However, these studies often assess perceived risk using a diverse range of either very general measures or measures of specific subsidiary concepts (for instance, the severity of consequences or the likelihood of occurrence). Previous research by Wilson and others has suggested that perceived r…
Both analysis and feelings? The influence of risk beliefs on holistic risk judgments through dual systems using the Essa model
Considerable previous research has examined factors that make up risk perception (its content), and the mechanisms through which risk is perceived (the process(es)). Content-based models have the advantage of identifying specific beliefs that may be out of line with expert judgments, while process-based models are better able to isolate specific mechanisms through which beliefs operate. Despite the advantages of both types, to date most models of…
Exploring the mechanisms behind farmers’ perceptions of nutrient loss risk
Factors that contribute to trustworthiness across levels of authority in wildland fire incident management teams
Adaptation is context specific
Research note
Managing wildlife diseases is a constant challenge in wildlife management and may require increasing attention as climate change increases the range, spread, and transmission cycles of some of these diseases in North America. The present study quantified hunters’ compliance with chronic wasting disease (CWD) risk-reduction practices across 26 deer management units (DMUs) in Ohio. We assessed self-reported, typical deer processing behaviors among …
Why Do we Conserve
Recent reviews of the agricultural conservation adoption literature find few definitive and consistent predictors of adoption across practices. We propose that these inconsistencies may be the result of statistical models failing to account for psychological mechanisms. Such mechanisms can link farm and farmer characteristics to adoption by highlighting not just what is important, but why these characteristics matter. We illustrate a simple, but …
Conservation behavior over time
Climate-Exacerbated Impacts May Drive Maladaptive Action in Agriculture
In the eastern Corn Belt of the United States, climate change is projected to bring warmer and wetter conditions, with more variability in the seasonal timing of rainfall, creating a multitude of challenges for agricultural production. While there are multiple adaptations to reduce the vulnerability of production to a changing climate, these adaptations have varying implications for other ecosystem services such as soil health, carbon sequestrati…
Psychology (18 works) · Environmental resource management (13 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Business (11 works) · Ecology (11 works) · Geography (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Economics (10 works) · Environmental Science (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works)