自然保護に関連する大学生の他者推定における誤差

― 多くの人は自然を大切と思っていないのか？ ―

抄録

　Promoting the values of nature among the public is of great importance in order to gain the support for policies to protect the nature. However, a person’s support for some policy and other social behaviors may not be derived by referring only to his or her own values, but also to the values of the majority of society as assumed by that person. The questionnaire survey utilized in this study revealed the existence of bias in the personal estimation of others as related to nature conservation, which resembled the above- or below-average effect that is commonly found in estimations of personality and abilities of oneself and others. The preferences that others hold for nature was estimated to be lower than one’s own preference, whereas the preference of others in terms of wealth was estimated to be higher. The policies related to the values with positive bias in estimating the preferences of others were judged to be more important when the benefits of others were considered than when only one’s own benefits were considered, and the policies related to the values with negative bias were judged to be opposite. It is suggested that such bias in estimating the preferences of others can be affecting how the public supports the policies concerning nature conservation and economic development.