Tolerance of frogs among high school students: Influences of disgust and culture

Abstract

Amphibians play an important role in the functioning of ecosystems and some of them inhabit human gardens where they can successfully reproduce. The decline of amphibian diversity worldwide suggests that people may play a crucial role in their survival. We conducted a Cross-Cultural study on high school students' tolerance of frogs in Chile, Slovakia, South Africa and Turkey (n=655 high school students). We found that about 6 % of students reported active killing of frogs and 30 % reported moving frogs away from their home gardens. Pathogen disgust negatively correlated with frog tolerance suggesting that people who are more sensitive to pathogen conoting cues are less tolerant toward frogs. Tolerance of frogs in parents or other family members appears to significantly influence student tolerance of frogs. Females tended to show higher tolerance of frogs than males. This study highlights the importance of the emotion of disgust in human willingness to protect frogs from a Cross-Cultural perspective.