8 Smll Gme Hunter Led Shot Communiction Study Executive Summry A coopertive study conducted y: Minnesot Coopertive Fish nd Wildlife Reserch Unit Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources
9 Smll Gme Hunter Led Shot Communiction Study Prepred y: Sue Schroeder Reserch Fellow Minnesot Coopertive Fish nd Wildlife Reserch Unit Deprtment of Fisheries, Wildlife, nd Conservtion Biology University of Minnesot Dvid C. Fulton USGS-Assistnt Unit Leder Minnesot Coopertive Fish nd Wildlife Reserch Unit Deprtment of Fisheries, Wildlife, nd Conservtion Biology University of Minnesot Bill Penning Frmlnd Wildlife Hitt Coordintor Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources Division of Wildlife Kthy DonCrlos Nturl Resource Progrm Consultnt Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources Division of Wildlife
70 Acknowledgements This study ws coopertive effort supported y the Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources, Division of Fish nd Wildlife (DNR) nd the U.S. Geologicl Survey through the Minnesot Coopertive Fish nd Wildlife Reserch Unit t the University of Minnesot. We thnk Rick Nordy for his ssistnce in working with the electronic licensing system. We lso thnk the mny smll gme hunters who took the time to complete the survey nd helped to further our understnding of this importnt clientele. Suggested Cittion Schroeder, S. A., Fulton D. C., Penning, W., nd DonCrlos, K. (008). Smll Gme Hunter Led Shot Communiction Study Executive Summry. University of Minnesot, Minnesot Coopertive Fish nd Wildlife Reserch Unit, Deprtment of Fisheries, Wildlife, nd Conservtion Biology. Contct Informtion ) Susn A. Schroeder, Reserch Fellow Minnesot Coopertive Fish nd Wildlife Reserch Unit University of Minnesot 00 Hodson Hll, 980 Folwell Avenue St. Pul, MN 08 ()-79 (phone) ()-99 (fx) ss@umn.edu ) Dvid C. Fulton, USGS Assistnt Unit Leder Minnesot Coopertive Fish nd Wildlife Reserch Unit University of Minnesot Hodson Hll, 980 Folwell Avenue St. Pul, MN 08 ()- (phone) ()-99 (fx) dcfulton@umn.edu ) Bill Penning, Frmlnd Wildlife Hitt Coordintor Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources 00 Lfyette Rd. St. Pul, MN -00 ill.penning@dnr.stte.mn.us ) Kthy DonCrlos, Nturl Resource Progrm Consultnt Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources 00 Lfyette Rd. St. Pul, MN -00 kthy.doncrlos@dnr.stte.mn.us
7 Executive Summry The purpose of this study ws to help identify pproprite messge points for informtion nd eduction progrms ddressing restriction of led shot. The specific ojective ws to develop nd test the effectiveness of trgeted messges in chnging ttitudes, eliefs, nd ehviors concerning restrictions on the use of toxic shot. A rndom smple of,800 resident smll gme hunters ws drwn from the Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources (DNR) electronic licensing system. The smple ws divided into smple of,00 for control group nd 00 for ech of nine tretment groups. Individuls in the smple received n 8-pge self-dministered survey with the control or tretment communiction on the cover pge. The questionnire ddressed the following topics: messge qulity, nrrtive versus fctul nture of the messge, messge involvement, evlution of the messge, likelihood of supporting n on led shot in the Minnesot frmlnd zone, greement with messge recommendtions, outcome involvement, nd ehviorl intentions, importnce of vlues ssocited with conformity nd freedom, nd ckground hunting smll gme. A totl of,7 surveys were returned efore the cut-off dte for response, resulting in n overll response rte of.%. An dditionl 8 surveys were returned fter the cut-off dte for totl response rte of 9.%. Respondent Chrcteristics The verge ge of respondents ws yers. On verge, respondents hd een hunting for smll gme for. yers. Nerly ll of the respondents (97.%) hd hunted for smll gme in Minnesot during the pst yers. Aout three-fourths (7.%) of respondents hd hunted for smll gme in the frmlnd zone in the pst yers. Aout 0% of respondents used non-led shot t lest some of the time, compred to out 0% of respondents who lwys used led shot to hunt smll gme. There were no sttisticlly significnt differences mong the control nd tretment groups in ge, numer of yers hunting smll gme, prticiption in smll gme hunting in recent yers, or use of led shot. Messges Bsed on review of the literture on persusive messging, we developed one control nd nine tretment messges. Messges included : () control messge, () sic fctul messge, (c) sic fctul messge with declrtive sttement from the Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources, (d) sic fctul messge with concession question, (e) sic fctul messge with qulifier sttement, (f) sic fctul messge with vlue-expressive component, (g) sic fctul messge with socil-djustive component with ligned norms, (h) sic fctul messge with socil-djustive component with non-ligned norms, (i) sic fctul messge dpted to third-person nrrtive, nd (j) sic fctul messge dpted to firstperson nrrtive. The control messge ws s follows:
7 Ntionwide there is concern out the effects of using led shot while hunting smll gme. Although led is the primry component of shot nd hs een used for couple of centuries, there re environmentl concerns ssocited with its continued use. The use of led shot for wterfowl hunting hs een nned ntionwide since 99. The Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources is exmining the issue of further restricting the use of led shot in the stte. Some other sttes re lso exmining this issue nd some hve lredy tken ction. One recommendtion of n dvisory committee to the DNR is to phse out the use of led shot for ll smll gme species in the frmlnd zone on ll pulic nd privte lnds. (The frmlnd zone includes lrge re in southern nd western Minnesot tht ws historiclly pririe nd hs now een lrgely converted to row crops nd psture. The frmlnd zone generlly does not include the forested res in centrl nd northern Minnesot.) The sic fctul messge ws s follows: Twenty six sttes hve egun regulting the use of led shot eyond existing restrictions for wterfowl hunting. Led is toxin tht cn kill humns nd wildlife when it is eten. Recent news reports hve descried concerns relted to led in children s toys nd discussed how doves, loons, nd trumpeter swns hve died from led poisoning. A regultion nning led shot will protect wildlife nd support helthy environment. Bnning led shot will improve the imge of hunters, sfegurd hunting opportunities, nd preserve our hunting heritge. Support n on toxic led shot in Minnesot s frmlnd zone. (The frmlnd zone includes lrge re in southern nd western Minnesot tht ws historiclly pririe nd hs now een lrgely converted to row crops nd psture. The frmlnd zone generlly does not include the forested res in centrl nd northern Minnesot.) The messge with the DNR declrtive sttement sustituted the sttement The Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources would like your support of n on toxic led shot in Minnesot s frmlnd zone for Support n on toxic led shot in Minnesot s frmlnd zone. The messge with the concession question included the question Why would you oppose regultions nning the use of toxic shot? insted of declrtive sttement. The messge with qulifier dded the phrse lthough it mens dditionl government regultion, t the eginning of the second prgrph. The vlue expressive messge dded two sentences to the eginning of the second prgrph. They were: You love nture nd the outdoors nd vlue your hunting heritge. You wnt future genertions to enjoy hunting nd outdoor experiences like you do now. The socil-djustive, norms ligned messge dded the sentence You know tht growing numer of hunters hve voluntrily switched from led to non-toxic shot nd tht sportsmen s groups like Ducks Unlimited support the use of non-toxic shot. The socil-djustive, with non-ligned norms messge dded the sentence: You know tht mny hunters re still using led shot even though sportsmen s groups like Ducks Unlimited support the use of non-toxic shot. In ddition to these messges, we constructed two nrrtive-style messges. The third-person nrrtive messge ws s follows: Joe is listening to the rdio on his wy out to hunt phesnts. He hers story out how sttes hve egun regulting the use of led shot eyond existing restrictions for wterfowl hunting. Joe knows tht led is toxin tht cn kill humns nd wildlife when it is eten. Indeed, he hs herd recent news reports out concerns relted to led in children s toys nd out doves, loons, nd trumpeter swns dying from led poisoning. He supports regultion nning led shot ecuse he cres out wildlife nd helthy environment, nd ecuse he knows tht nning led shot will improve the imge of hunters, sfegurd hunting opportunities, nd preserve our hunting heritge. Support n on toxic led shot in Minnesot s frmlnd zone.
7 (The frmlnd zone includes lrge re in southern nd western Minnesot tht ws historiclly pririe nd hs now een lrgely converted to row crops nd psture. The frmlnd zone generlly does not include the forested res in centrl nd northern Minnesot.) The finl tretment dpted the third-person nrrtive to first person y sustituting you for Joe throughout the messge. Messge Qulity Respondents greed slightly tht ll messges, including the control messge, were elievle, convincing, compelling, logicl, nd conveyed in strightforwrd wy. Respondents disgreed slightly tht the resoning in the messges ws unsound. Compred to ll of the tretment messges, the control messge ws rted significntly less elievle, convincing, compelling, logicl nd using more resoning tht ws more unsound. Using scle of messge qulity, which included whether the messge ws elievle, convincing, compelling, nd logicl, we found tht the control messge hd significntly lower messge qulity, while the sic fctul, ligned socil-djustive messge, non-ligned socildjustive messge, nd first-person nrrtive messge hd higher messge qulity (Figure S-). Figure S-: Messge qulity y tretment. 7 Control Bsic Bsic + DNR Bsic +? Bsic + qulified Bsic + vlues Bsic + norms, ligned Bsic + norms, not ligned Bsic in rd person nrrtive Bsic in st person nrrtive =extremely low evlution, 7=extremely high evlution F=.90, p<0.00 Letters,, indicte significnt differences in Gmes-Howell post-hoc test. Messge Type Respondents greed slightly tht ll tretment messges were () persusive, () converstionl, (c) fctoriented, (d) drmtic, nd (e) telling story. The control messge ws rted significntly less persusive, converstionl, fct-oriented, drmtic, nd telling story. Bsed on reserch conducted y Polyort (007), we constructed scle to test the nrrtive mnipultion of the messges, which included whether the messge ws drmtic, nd telling story (r = 0.90). The control messge ws perceived s hving significntly lower nrrtive qulity compred to ll tretment messges (Figure S-), ut we found no difference etween fctul nd nrrtive tretment messges in perception of nrrtive qulity.
7 Figure S-: Perceived nrrtive qulity of messge y tretment 7 Control Bsic Bsic + DNR Bsic +? Bsic + qulified Bsic + vlues Bsic + norms, ligned Bsic + norms, not ligned Bsic in rd person nrrtive Bsic in st person nrrtive =non-nrrtive, 7=extremely nrrtive F=.77, p<0.00 Letters,, indicte significnt differences in SNK post-hoc test. Messge Involvement Five questions were sked to evlute respondents involvement with the messges. Respondents greed slightly tht ll messges were () conveyed clerly, () esy to understnd, (c) interesting, (d) involving, nd (e) credile. The control messge ws perceived s hving significntly lower messge involvement compred to ll tretment messges. The sic fctul messge, two socil-djustive tretment messges, nd the first-person nrrtive messge were rted to hve greter messge involvement (Figure S-). Figure S-: Messge involvement y tretment 7 Control Bsic Bsic + DNR Bsic +? Bsic + qulified Bsic + vlues Bsic + norms, ligned Bsic + norms, not ligned Bsic in rd person nrrtive Bsic in st person nrrtive =non-nrrtive, 7=extremely nrrtive F=.0, p<0.00 Letters,, indicte significnt differences in Gmes-Howell post-hoc test. Messge Evlution Six questions were sked to mesure respondents evlution of n on led shot in the frmlnd zone of Minnesot. On verge, respondents greed just slightly tht n ws: () eneficil, () good, (c)
7 wise, (d) worthwhile, (e) ppeling, nd (f) importnt. Respondents who received the control messge felt tht n would e less eneficil, good, wise, worthwhile, ppeling nd importnt. Using scle of six evlution items, we found tht respondents who received the control messge hd lower evlution of n compred to respondents who received the tretment messges. Respondents who received the sic fctul messge, the two normtive tretment messges, nd the two nrrtive messges rted n more positively (Figure S-). Figure S-: Messge evlution y tretment. 7 Control Bsic Bsic + DNR Bsic +? Bsic + qulified Bsic + vlue s Bsic + norms, ligned Bsic + norms, not ligned Bsic in rd person nrrtive Bsic in st person nrrtive =extremely low evlution, 7=extremely high evlution F=., p<0.00 Letters,, indicte significnt differences in Gmes-Howell post-hoc test. Agreement With Messge Recommendtions, Outcome Involvement, Behviorl Intentions We constructed three scles to mesure overll greement with messge recommendtions, outcome involvement, nd ehviorl intentions. We found tht respondents who received the control messge greed less with the messge recommendtions, while respondents who received the sic fctul nd first-person nrrtive messges greed more (Figure S-). We found no significnt differences mong the control nd tretment groups in outcome involvement (Figure S-). Respondents who received the sic fctul, non-ligned socil-djustive, nd first-person nrrtive messges reported stronger intentions to support n on led shot in the frmlnd zone, while those who received the control messge reported weker intentions, compred to other tretment groups (Figure S-7).
7 Figure S-: Agreement with messge recommendtions y tretment. 7 Control Bsic Bsic + DNR Bsic +? Bsic + qulified Bsic + vlues Bsic + norms, ligned Bsic + norms, not ligned Bsic in rd person nrrtive Bsic in st person nrrtive =extremely low evlution, 7=extremely high evlution F=., p<0.00, η=0. Letters,, indicte significnt differences in Gmes-Howell post-hoc test. Figure S-: Outcome involvement y tretment. 7 Control Bsic Bsic + DNR Bsic +? Bsic + qulified Bsic + vlues Bsic + norms, ligned Bsic + norms, not ligned Bsic in rd person nrrtive Bsic in st person nrrtive =extremely low evlution, 7=extremely high evlution F=0.7, n.s., η=0.00 Letters,, indicte significnt differences in Gmes-Howell post-hoc test.
77 Figure S-7: Behviorl intentions y tretment. 7 Control Bsic Bsic + DNR Bsic +? Bsic + qulified Bsic + vlues Bsic + norms, ligned Bsic + norms, not ligned Bsic in rd person nrrtive Bsic in st person nrrtive Vlues =extremely low evlution, 7=extremely high evlution F=.9, p<0.0, η=0.07 Letters,, indicte significnt differences in Gmes-Howell post-hoc test. Survey recipients were sked to respond to nine items derived from Hullett nd Boster (00) ddressing vlues relted to conformity nd self direction. We found no significnt differences mong the control nd tretment groups in the importnce of conformity (Figure S-8) or self-direction (Figure S-9) vlues. Unlike Hullett nd Boster (00), we did not find significnt reltionships etween self-direction vlues nd messge qulity for the vlues-expressive messge, nor conformity vlues nd messge qulity for the socil djustive messge with norms ligned. We found significnt positive reltionships etween oth self-direction vlues (r = 0.**) nd conformity vlues (r = 0.**) with the messge qulity for the socil djustive messges with non-ligned norms. Figure S-8: Importnce of conformity vlue y tretment. 7 Control Bsic Bsic + DNR Bsic +? Bsic + qulified Bsic + vlues Bsic + norms, ligned Bsic + norms, not ligned Bsic in rd person nrrtive Bsic in st person nrrtive =extremely low evlution, 7=extremely high evlution F=0.79, n.s., η=0.09 Letters,, indicte significnt differences in Gmes-Howell post-hoc test.
78 Figure S-9: Importnce of self-direction vlue y tretment. 7 Control Bsic Bsic + DNR Bsic +? Bsic + qulified Bsic + vlues Bsic + norms, ligned Bsic + norms, not ligned Bsic in rd person nrrtive Bsic in st person nrrtive =extremely low evlution, 7=extremely high evlution F=0.7, n.s., η=0.0 Letters,, indicte significnt differences in Gmes-Howell post-hoc test. Modeling the Effectiveness of Communictions on Support for n on Led Shot in Minnesot s Frmlnd Zone Bsed on the reserch of Hullett nd Bolster (00) nd Polyort (007), we exmined the fctors ssocited with persusive messges tht my relte to support for n on led shot in the Minnesot frmlnd zone. We found tht messge qulity (r = 0.78***), perception of the nrrtive qulity of the messge (r = 0.***), messge involvement (r = 0.98***), product evlution (r = 0.87***), greement with messge recommendtions (r = 0.9***), conformity vlues (r = 0.070**), nd selfdirection vlues (r = 0.09**) were positively correlted with our scled mesure of intention to support n on led shot in the Minnesot frmlnd zone. Outcome involvement (r = -0.7***), yers hunting smll gme (r = -0.***), ge (r = -0.07**), nd incresed use of led shot for hunting smll gme (r = -0.70***) were negtively correlted with intent to support n. Respondents who hd hunted for smll gme in the Minnesot frmlnd zone in the pst yers were significntly less likely to support n ( x =.) thn those who hd not hunted in the re in the pst yers ( x =.7) (F=.7***, η = 0.). We conducted medition nlyses to exmine the reltionships first mong () messge qulity, () greement with messge recommendtions, nd (c) intention to support n, then mong () messge type, () messge involvement, nd (c) messge evlution. We followed Bron nd Kenny s (98) recommendtions for medition nlysis, which involved computing series of three models. Agreement with messge recommendtions prtilly medited the reltionship etween messge qulity nd ehviorl intentions (Figure S-0).
79 Figure S-0: Medition Anlysis of Messge Qulity, Agreement With Messge Recommenttions, nd Behviorl Intentions to Support Bn on Led Shot in the Frmlnd Zone. Step 0.79*** Agreement w/messge recs Adj. R =0. Messge Qulity Step Messge Qulity Agreement w/messge recs 0.78*** Behviorl Intentions Adj. R =0.7 Behviorl Intentions Step Agreement w/messge recs 0.87*** Adj. R =0.8 Messge Qulity 0.0*** Behviorl Intentions Messge involvement prtilly medited the reltionship etween messge type (i.e. perception of nrrtive nture of the messge) nd product evlution (Figure S-). Figure S-: Medition Anlysis of Messge Type, Messge Involvement, nd Messge Evlution. Step 0.*** Messge Involvement Adj. R =0.9 Messge Type Step Messge Type Messge Involvement 0.89*** Messge Evlution Adj. R =0. Messge Evlution Step Messge Involvement 0.*** Adj. R =0. Messge Type 0.0* Messge Evlution
80 Conclusions Our results suggest tht persusive messges my increse support for n on led shot in Minnesot s frmlnd zone. Compred to respondents who received the control messge, respondents who received tretment messges reported more positive ttitudes out, higher evlutions of, nd stronger support for possile n on led shot. Results suggest tht sic fctul, first-person nrrtive, nd socil-djustive messges mentioning Ducks Unlimited my e more persusive thn messges tht use: () declrtive sttements from the Minnesot Deprtment of Nturl Resources, () concession questions, (c) qulifiers (i.e. counterrguments), (d) vlue-expressive messges out hunting heritge, or (e) third-person nrrtive.