Attitudes of School Children in Germany and Costa Rica towards Invertebrates - A Comparison

Negative feelings and an insufficient awareness of invertebrates seem to be culturally universal and can be found in different countries and continents. To better understand the underlying mechanisms we want to compare the attitudes of school children in Germany and Costa Rica towards invertebrates. The sample of the study comprised a total of 271 school children (grade 4, 5 and 6); 134 Costa Rican students (61 girls, 73 boys) and 137 German students (53 girls, 84 boys). Attitudes towards small animals such as beetles, wood lice, centipedes or spiders were assessed with the help of a semantic differential. Altogether students marked their choices for 13 bipolar adjective pairs that focused on the perceived value of animals and the emotions towards them. Only 3 of the 13 bipolar adjective pairs showed significant differences. Although Costa Rican schoolchildren rated invertebrates more dangerous than German schoolchildren, especially the Costa Rican boys rated the invertebrates more interesting and more precious in comparison with the German students.