413moderate to severe problem, and just 6 % felt it was not at all a problem. The extent
to which ranchers perceived B. tectorum to be problematic was aligned with the
current distribution of the species, with regional differences linked to elevation,
climate, and historic data. In all but one region, natural resource professionals
expressed greater concern about B. tectorum than did ranchers (Kelley et al. 2013 ).
14.2.2 Attitudes concerning Exotic Invasive Plants
and Their Management
Attitudes can derive from beliefs formed as a result of direct exposure to environmental
changes or events or of indirect exposure (via personal contacts or media) that causes
people to reevaluate their ideas or actions. The intensity and direction of attitudes are
likely to vary depending on a number of personal and contextual factors, including
the individual’s assessment of catastrophic risk, attributions of blame for undesirable
events, regularity of interaction with wildlands, and value assessments about society’s
right to manipulate natural environments and the nonhuman organisms found there.
The most common way to assess attitudes is to ask people what they think in
surveys or interviews. Interviews are useful for obtaining nuanced information,
since respondents can be asked on the spot to elaborate on answers they are given.
However, they can be time-consuming so that it is diffi cult to gain information from
larger numbers of people. Surveys are especially valuable for decision makers
whose jobs require that they be responsive to a range of citizens or interest groups,
such as elected offi cials or public land managers, because they make it possible to
distinguish between the views of a typical member of a constituency vs. those of the
most persistent or vocal constituents. Surveys are economical, straightforward, and
if done by experienced survey writers using scientifi c sampling methods can be
generalized to describe a population of interest such as a stakeholder group (e.g.,
farmers and ranchers, environmental group members) or region. Notable drawbacks
of surveys are that they capture what people are thinking at a single moment in time
and may not refl ect what people think or do in the long term when faced with eco-
nomic or time constraints, peer infl uences, and other limiting factors. This may be
especially true in the case of a topic that is not central to their everyday lives, so that
their attitudes are not well formed. In such cases, survey respondents may be prone
to “ social desirability bias ,” in which they provide the answers they believe the
questioner wants to hear or that they perceive are more aligned with a relevant social
group. Also, it is important when assessing survey data not to extrapolate results
beyond the limited focus of the survey itself.
Tidwell ( 2005 ) asked his Southwestern US respondents whether they agreed or
disagreed with a statement that “the government isn’t doing e nough to control inva-
sive plants” and found that 71 % agreed. Perhaps surprisingly, when asked whether
this should occur even if it means higher taxes or increased regulation, more people
14 Human Dimensions of Invasive Grasses