Measuring Actual Payment for Biodiversity Protection

Abstract

Abstract I report the results of an experiment using a convenience sample of subjects recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk that examines how religiously and scientifically framed messages about biodiversity loss influence a choice to make donations to protect against biodiversity loss. Subjects who received a religiously framed message were just as likely to make a donation as participants who read a control or scientifically framed message about biodiversity loss. In a subsample of Christians, the religiously framed message did not influence people to make a donation, compared to a control message, while a scientifically framed message increased the likelihood of making a donation. A religiously framed message increased donation amount in Christians, relative to a control message. Because there is a cost associated with biodiversity loss and protection, this research is important to determine how different message framing techniques promote action to prevent further biodiversity loss.