Press Releases

(Hong Kong, 13 August 2026) While global conservation strategies heavily promote fostering a psychological connection to nature and biospheric values among youth, a new study from the Research Centre for Environment and Human Health (the Research Centre) at the School of Continuing Education, Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU SCE) adds much needed nuance and has also revealed a critical disconnect.

Taking urban wild boars as an example of a "problem-causing" species, the study reveals that strong environmental values do not secure support for coexistence if the animals evoke negative emotions, fail to inspire positive ones, or are perceived as threatening during close encounters.

The study, titled "Determinants of conservation attitudes for urban wild boar: Environmental, emotional and cognitive perspectives in children and adolescents," was recently published in the prestigious international journal, Biological Conservation. The Research Centre led an international research team in collaboration with Professor Alan Reid (Monash University, Australia), to survey approximately 2,400 school students in Hong Kong aged from 8 to 18. The survey was designed to decode what might drive young people to tolerate or be intolerant of urban wildlife amidst ongoing culling operations, or remain indifferent to that. Read the full study here (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111979)

Key research findings: Decoding the three cognitive psychological mechanisms of youth

By analysing the data trends from the survey, the research team identified three core findings on how environmental values, emotional responses and threat appraisals interact to shape youth attitudes towards coexisting with “problem-causing” urban wildlife:

Finding 1: Broad environmental values cannot strongly distinguish indifference in youth attitudes

The study confirmed that while broad environmental values do strongly differ between students with tolerant and intolerant attitudes towards urban wild boar, this is not the case for feelings of indifference. In other words, without focusing on the more crucial species-specific factors, which may include emotional responses such as fear and disgust and perceptions of threat, youth are unlikely to seek value or derive benefit from positive encounters with wild boar. “The subtleties of this finding can help explain why the intolerance expressed by certain groups is powerfully driven by personal safety anxiety rather than rational policy considerations,” said the project leader, Dr Sam Lau (HKBU).

Finding 2: “Nature Connectedness” levels dictate the psychological motives behind wildlife protection

The analysis of the survey data investigated the school students’ psychological sense of oneness with nature (nature connectedness) and found two major patterns that operate on completely different baseline motivations for when students consider whether to protect wild boars:

o   Students with low “Nature Connectedness” (disconnected from nature): Tend to adopt what researchers label either a utilitarian or instrumental orientation. The willingness of those with low “Nature Connectedness” to protect wildlife is heavily dictated by emotions and cognitive factors – specifically, surprise, disgust and empathy (i.e. sadness), their tolerance of urban wild boars, and differences in environmental values amongst the less nature connected students. “Once young people perceive the animals as a threat to humans in urban areas, they quickly pivot to prioritising human interests, thereby supporting removal or culling operations,” said Dr Sam Lau.

o   Students with high “Nature Connectedness” (nature lovers): Tend to adopt what researchers call ecological integration orientation. In contrast to those with low “Nature Connectedness”, the conservation intentions of those with high connectedness is not based on cost-benefit type calculations but rather on factors including general tolerance and personal values that emphasise wild boars are capable of coexisting peacefully with humans in urban environments.

Finding 3: Nature connectedness acts as “emotional buffer” to prevent extreme attitudes

Building on Finding 2, Finding 3 represents one of the most important statistical findings of the study, and raises key questions for future research. Finding 3 builds on patterns in the dataset that reveal individuals strongly connected with nature have stable motivations. When students possess a deep connection to nature, they do not blindly support conservation based on a single positive emotion towards wild boars, as the emotional drive is tempered by rational considerations too. Conversely, students disconnected from nature have psychological mechanisms that are highly susceptible to being triggered by fear or negative media coverage, causing their attitudes to collapse into extreme biases that tend to prioritise human interests over animal safety due to the lack of an emotional buffer.

Professor Ronald Chung, Dean of SCE, HKBU, added, “This study underscores the University’s research contributions to the fields of environment and human health. He noted that while pursuing urban progress, society must re-establish the fundamental connection between the younger generation and nature, as rebuilding this bond is essential for achieving human-wildlife coexistence and sustainable community development.”

Rethinking environmental education in urban settings

"Traditional environmental education often relies on teaching broad concepts like protecting biodiversity and loving nature. However, our findings show that when a species evokes fear or is framed negatively by local media, those generic values may not alleviate human-wildlife conflicts," said Professor Alan Reid. "In highly urbanised environments like Hong Kong, threat perceptions strongly influence youth to prioritise human interests over wildlife, and as the wider literature discussed in the paper in Biological Conservation shows, this pattern is not unique to Hong Kong."

The findings suggest that simply teaching either environmental facts about habitat pressures or values of care are insufficient in preparing young people to protect controversial urban wildlife. The study shows that for youth who lack a deep bond with nature, managing emotional triggers like disgust towards wildlife is essential. Meanwhile, leveraging empathy (i.e. sadness) can significantly shift the perspectives of nature-connected youth to support coexistence.

The research team calls for further research in places like Hong Kong and contrasting settings to both strengthen and deepen our investigations into how nature connectedness interacts with cognitive and emotional factors. Comparison with this study’s findings will also help us better design public education and human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies, and better understand how students who already possess strong nature connections can be further empowered to partake in conservation efforts.

The researchers emphasise that to achieve genuine human-wildlife coexistence, future educational campaigns must also address the value of using “problem-causing” images for such animals. For example, communication strategies could actively address species-specific negative emotions and promote positive emotions, debunk exaggerated media representations, and teach safe ways of handling real-life encounters.

Pictures of the study findings are available for download at  http://scepr.hkbu.edu.hk/wildboars.

Captions

Pic 1:   Conceptualisation of study hypothesis on predictors of urban wild boar tolerance (H1) and intolerance (H2); predictors of protection intention by species-specificity and between low (H3) and high (H4) nature connectedness groupings; and interaction effects between nature connectedness with emotions and cognitive factors on protection intentions for wild boar (H5) and human interest (H6)

Pic 2:   Odds ratios of tolerant (n = 679), intolerant (n = 1,300), and indifferent (n = 419) responses to urban wild boar presence predicted by socio-demographic factors, environmental values and emotional responses. Red lines indicate significant predictors.

Pic 3:   Significant interaction effects between CNI groups on the relationship between protection intentions with emotions and cognitive factors for wild boars.

About the Research Centre for Environment and Human Health, SCE, HKBU

The Research Centre for Environment and Human Health, SCE, HKBU was established in 2021 with funding support from the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, China (UGC/IDS(R) 23/20). Led by Dr Sam Lau, the Centre serves as an interdisciplinary research platform to enhance understanding of the environment-health nexus, explore integrative solutions for environmental change and human health, and promote public awareness of environmental health and sustainability.

Collaboration

We are grateful to Hong Kong Discovery, the Sustainability Unit of The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, and the principals and teachers of all participating schools for their collaborative support, which was essential to the success of this research.

Read the full study here

Lau SSS, Fong JWL, Chui AWL & Reid A (2026) Determinants of conservation attitudes for urban wild boar: Environmental, emotional and cognitive perspectives in children and adolescents. Biological Conservation, 321, 111979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111979

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