Your Money or Your (Wild) Life? Political Ideology, Deference to Authority, and Media Attention as Predictors of Support for Interventionist Conservation Policies

This study examines support for interventionist conservation policies directed at natural resource-using industries in Wisconsin, a U.S. state heavily dependent on natural resources for economic vitality. We use measures, or variations of measures, common in science and environmental communication research: personal predispositions (i.e. religiosity and political ideology), deference to authority, and individual media use, to determine what effect these variables have on individual levels of support for interventionist conservation policies. Using a statewide representative survey and OLS regression, this study finds that religiosity, deference to business and industry leaders, attention to economic news, attention to Fox News, and attention to talk radio are negatively related to support for interventionist conservation policies. Age, liberal political ideology, deference to economists, attention to natural resource and environmental news, and attention to network news (ABC/NBC/CBS) are positively related to support for interventionist conservation policies.