Abstract

While there is growing consensus that nature should be promoted in cities, it is less clear what kind of nature this should be. One hypothesis is that humans like those parts of nature more that they know better. Using questionnaires, we studied the familiarity of 475 students with 91 urban animal species and the relationship between familiarity and attitude towards the species. Students were familiar with most animals, but not all animals were equally liked. Better-known species were not generally the better-liked ones. The more familiar animal species were on average, the more extreme attitudes became towards them, both positive and negative. For several animal species, there were significant differences in attitudes between men and women. Foreign students were less familiar with species occurring in German cities than German students, and there were some differences in attitudes. Our research shows that familiarity and attitude are not two sides of the same coin. It also emphasizes that there are parts of nature that are not liked by many humans and that this dislike is not necessarily correlated with insufficient knowledge. Detailed studies of what component of nature humans like and reasons underlying this are necessary to successfully increase nature in cities.