Personal beliefs and motivations of contemporary U.S. ecologists: Uncovering patterns and associations

Background/Question/Methods  

Certain personal traits and behaviors are assumed to be associated with professional ecologists by employers, activists, politicians, ESA leadership, and ecologists themselves. For example, it is generally assumed by many that ecologists are environmental altruists and, inescapably, socio-politically active. In fact, we know little about the personal beliefs, motivations, convictions and behaviors of ecologists, or how these might vary with gender, age, employment, and other aspects of personal and professional life. There is little self-awareness among ecologists on these points; many may regard the courses their professional lives have taken to have resulted from a series of conscious, rational decisions. But were they? While individual ecologists may envision themselves as objective and coherent, we must remember that science historians inevitably trace careers and movements in highly contingent and constructivist terms.

We conducted a survey of non-student, U.S. members of the ESA in spring 2011 to probe such questions. Approximately 20% of the potential pool (1,215) responded, providing good representation of this population. Questions were organized into five units. The first gathered information on respondent properties such as age, gender, employment, etc. The second unit asked about the degree to which ecologists participated in environmental practices and how they thought those actions influenced their scientific integrity. The third unit sought opinions on personal and professional properties that would make “a good ecological scientist.” The fourth unit sought opinions on whether basic research, applied research, and participation in environmental issues are, can be, or ought to be objective and value-free. The last unit sought evaluations about the contributions of environmental activists versus environmental skeptics. 

Results/Conclusions

Analysis of these data is complex and ongoing. Consequently, our conclusions are indicative but preliminary. A few characteristics of interest are: 1) there is an inverse relationship between female representation and age; 2) attitudes change significantly with age but those changes are not related to gender; 3) ecologists are not generous contributors to environmental causes even though they overwhelmingly believe that financial support has no effect on scientific integrity; 4) ecologists rate scientific objectivity and passion for inquiry as the most important of 15 traits, while they rate aesthetically-oriented traits like being out of doors, or having an appreciation of the beauty of nature of intermediate importance. They view least important ethically centered traits like religious foundations for valuing nature, or a sense of moral obligation to preserve aspects of nature.