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ABSTRACT
People who live in brown bear areas often fear encounters with these animals. This article evaluated the potential effect of exposure to bears and their habitats on human fear of brown bears using the modeling of appropriate behavior when close to bears. In a within-subject design, 25 persons who reported to be fearful of brown bears participated in a guided walk approaching approximately 50 m of a brown bear in its daybed and in a guided forest walk in bear habitat. The presentation order was reversed for half of the group. The participants reported significantly reduced feelings of fear after the bear walk, but not after the forest walk. There were no corresponding significant effects for the experimental measures of fear-related responses. The results partially support the notion that exposure to the object of fear, such as a bear habitat with presence of a bear, might be a feasible intervention to reduce peoples’ feeling of fear, but the design of the intervention must be developed further before it can be used in practice.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Sven Brunberg, Eja Pedersen, Agneta Olsson, Inês A. Ferreira for supporting data collection and administration, and Jon E. Swenson for commenting on an earlier draft.
Funding
This research was funded by research grants from the Norwegian Environment Agency. The study was carried out in collaboration with the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project funded by the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Research Council of Norway. None of the funders had any role in the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article. This is scientific paper no. 204 from the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project.