Mehmet BAHAR, Pavol PROKOP, Jana FANCOVICOVA, Muhammet USAK, Mehmet ERDOĞAN

Slovakian and Turkish students’ fear, disgust and perceived danger of invertebrates

İnsanoğlu omurgasız hayvanları omurgalı hayvanlara göre daha az olumlu algılamaktadır. Çünkü bu hayvanlar davranış ve morfolojik yapı olarak çok alışılmamışlardır. Bu kültürlerarası çalışma Slovak (n=150) ve Türk (n=164) öğrencilerin 25 omurgasız canlı ile ilgili algılanan tehlike, korku ve nefretlerini araştırmaktadır. Türk öğrencilerden farklı olarak, Slovak öğrencilere bu canlıların sınıflandırmaları üzerine sorular sorulmuştur. Slovak öğrencileri ile karşılaştırıldığında, Türk öğrencileri daha yüksek düzeyde korku, nefret ve tehlike algısına sahiptirler. Kızlar lehine cinsiyet farkı sadece Slovak öğrenciler arasında ve potansiyel olarak tehlikeli olan canlılar için gözlemlenmiştir. Bu durum kız öğrencilerin tehlikeli hayvanları az veya çok ayırt edemediğini göstermiştir. Herhangi bir ev hayvanına sahip olma ile öğrencilerin görüşleri arasında bir ilişki bulunamamıştır. Ayrıca, sınıflandırma becerileri ile öğrencilerin görüşleri arasında da bir ilişki bulunamamıştır.

Slovak ve Türk öğrencilerinin omurgasız hayvanlara ilişkin algılanan tehlike,korku ve nefretleri

Human perceives invertebrates less positively than vertebrates because they are small and behaviourally and morphologically unfamiliar. This cross-cultural research focused on Slovakian (n=150) and Turkish (n=164) students’ fear, disgust and perceived danger regarding 25 invertebrates [including 5 disease relevant adult insects, 5 ectoparasites, 5 endoparasites, 5 disease irrelevant adult insects and 5 insect larvae/earthworm]. A subsample of Slovakian children was asked for taxonomic identification of these animals. It was found that Turkish students rated higher in all three dimensions fear, disgust and dangerousness, compared with Slovakian students. Gender difference favouring higher score of females were found only among Slovakian students and these differences were observed for potentially harmful animals. This implies that females were able to distinguish between more and less dangerous animals. It was neither detected any effects of owning animals on students’ ratings, nor found any correlation between identification skills and rating scores.

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