Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2011;6(7):e22050. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022050. Epub 2011 Jul 13.
Chimpanzees are endangered in their native Africa but in the United States, they are housed not only in zoos and research centers but owned privately as pets and performers. In 2008, survey data revealed that the public is less likely to think that chimpanzees are endangered compared to other great apes, and that this is likely the result of media misportrayals in movies, television and advertisements. Here, we use an experimental survey paradigm with composite images of chimpanzees to determine the effects of specific image characteristics. We found that those viewing a photograph of a chimpanzee with a human standing nearby were 35.5% more likely to consider wild populations to be stable/healthy compared to those seeing the exact same picture without a human. Likewise, the presence of a human in the photograph increases the likelihood that they consider chimpanzees as appealing as a pet. We also found that respondents seeing images in which chimpanzees are shown in typically human settings (such as an office space) were more likely to perceive wild populations as being stable and healthy compared to those seeing chimpanzees in other contexts. These findings shed light on the way that media portrayals of chimpanzees influence public attitudes about this important and endangered species.
黑猩猩在其原生非洲处于濒危状态，但在美国，它们不仅被安置在动物园和研究中心，还被私人当作宠物和表演者饲养。2008 年的调查数据显示，与其他类人猿相比，公众认为黑猩猩濒危的可能性较小，这很可能是电影、电视和广告中的媒体错误描述造成的。在这里，我们使用包含黑猩猩复合图像的实验调查范式来确定特定图像特征的影响。我们发现，与看到没有人类的完全相同的图片相比，那些看到一个人类站在附近的黑猩猩的照片的人，认为野生种群稳定/健康的可能性增加了 35.5%。同样，照片中有人的存在增加了他们认为黑猩猩作为宠物有吸引力的可能性。我们还发现，与看到黑猩猩处于其他环境的图片相比，看到黑猩猩处于典型人类环境（如办公空间）的图片的受访者更有可能认为野生种群稳定和健康。这些发现揭示了媒体对黑猩猩的描述方式如何影响公众对这一重要濒危物种的态度。
