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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Conserv. Sci.
Sec. Conservation Social Sciences
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2024.1489038
This article is part of the Research Topic Preventing Zoonoses. Promoting Biophilia. View all 4 articles

Perspective Art Can Provide a Means for Promoting Biophilia as an Aspect of Zoonoses Risk Communication

Provisionally accepted
Peyton Beaumont Peyton Beaumont 1,2,3*
  • 1 Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), Front Royal, United States
  • 2 George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States
  • 3 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, District of Columbia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The COVID-19 pandemic served as a call to action for scientists to find new and creative ways to prevent future pandemics. Because value-based emotions underly human behavior, scientific facts alone have proven to be a poor motivator to change the behaviors that increase zoonotic spillover risk. Emotions can translate in psychological stances such as biophobia, the fear of or aversion to nature, and biophilia, the appreciation of nature. Educating the public about species that may pose a zoonotic risk can have the unintended effect of inducing biophobia into the public psyche. This can lead to increased zoonoses risk. In this Perspective, I make the case that strategically employing art can be an effective method to communicate zoonotic risk while promoting biophilia. Using art as a method of communication has been explored by various scientific fields but has not been sufficiently applied to infectious disease messaging.

    Keywords: Zoonoses, biophilia, Biophobia, Art, Communication, Education, nature

    Received: 31 Aug 2024; Accepted: 04 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Beaumont. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Peyton Beaumont, Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), Front Royal, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.