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Instructions for Exploring the Conservation Biology Practice Exercises
This chapter of the Second Edition of Conservation Biology concludes with a Practice Exercise, which provides students the opportunity to learn and apply research skills and concepts related to the chapter content.
Chapter 5 Practice Exercise: Social Norm Curves
Decisions about conservation are often determined by people’s willingness to accept different conservation actions or outcomes, including their willingness to accept negative consequences (e.g., lost jobs, or increased human-wildlife conflict). Levels of acceptability are a function of human value systems and ethical worldviews that determine social norms, and these norms can be quantified using a tool called “social norm curves.” Use the tutorial videos and spreadsheet exercises to learn how to construct social norm curves that quantify minimum or maximum levels of social acceptability for conservation decisions.
1. Begin with the Videos
Each Practice Exercise begins with videos from author James D. Murdoch that 1) introduce the Practice Exercise and concepts involved; 2) explore and explain the concepts in depth; and 3) demonstrate tools used in the practical study of those concepts.
For each Chapter Practice Exercise, the student should watch these videos first!
Chapter 5 – Video Topics: Social Norm Curve
- Social norm curve overview
- Surveying acceptability of a given condition
- Identifying minimum/maximum acceptable levels
- Curve characteristics (salience, crystallization)
- Modeling a social norm curve
- Fitting a cubic function (or 3rd order polynomial) model
- Estimating model parameters
- Estimating minimum/maximum acceptability for mean survey values
- Estimating minimum/maximum acceptability for individual survey respondents
Download this spreadsheet, and use it as you follow along with the videos.
You can check your work using this completed spreadsheet.
2. Examine the Questions
Each Practice Exercise features a series of questions, which guide students through key questions and concepts.
Some questions may ask you to utilize different parts of the spreadsheet you used in the videos. They also provide a space to upload completed spreadsheets and to record any other responses or information requested.