Identification of social indicators and standards for acceptable conditions in the Cohutta Wilderness using a normative social judgment approach

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to: 1) measure the importance Cohutta Wilderness users place upon potential indicators of preferred wilderness experiences, 2) identify the extent to which norm, or standards, exist among these users for a variety of social indicators of the wilderness experience, and 3) to compare these characteristics among a number of different subgroups in order to assess any differences which may exist among users. Social judgment theory was used in the study to develop a more reliable and useful method for achieving these objectives.

Wilderness users tended to place high levels of importance on most of the indicators studied. However, the greatest importance was placed upon a number of the physical/ecological indicators. Subgroups of wilderness users classified according to wilderness involvement, place attachment, and length of stay showed the most significant differences in importance evaluations.

Most of the users sampled were willing to provide personal norms, but these norms were often unstable over time. Users tended to become more restrictive concerning those conditions they found acceptable.

Measures of consensus suggested two different conclusions. Wilderness user subgroups tended to have greater median variation than was the case for the approach using percent agreement for specific encounter norm levels. When users were broken down into subgroups, the wilderness involvement measure appeared to explain the most differences in norms regarding the acceptability of wilderness conditions.