The pesky problem of defining a ‘pest’: Testing the pest management attitudes scale in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The Pest Management Attitudes (PMA) scale was developed to provide a unidimensional and versatile tool to assess attitudes toward introduced pests and their management. While the PMA has been tested and shown strong psychometric properties in samples from Aotearoa, New Zealand (NZ), it is only beginning to be used internationally. This study tested the utility and influence of wording of the PMA scale in the United Kingdom (UK), using a 2021 survey (N = 999) distributed via online platform Prolific. Two of the 9 PMA scale items were not appropriate in our UK sample. We posit that despite references to introduced and native species in the PMA wording, many participants completed the survey with human rather than biodiversity pests in mind. While the PMA remains a valuable tool for understanding attitudes toward pests and their management, wording may need modification to ensure that concepts translate cross-culturally to retain meaningful comparisons.