Written by Chloe Griffiths
November’s NBN conference provided me with the chance to meet, and subsequently interview, several people with fascinating views on motivation in Citizen Science. My name is Chloe Griffiths and I am currently halfway through a PhD at Aberystwyth University, researching what motivates people to give up their free time to record wildlife.
At the Bristol conference I was able to meet people with expertise in areas as diverse as Rockpools, plant pests and camera trapping, all of whom generously shared their experiences with me, and fed into my research. I can now share the preliminary findings of the PhD, as some thematic ‘golden threads’ have appeared.
Firstly, and most surprising to me, is wonder! After more than 70 interviews, there has been an overwhelming response that the experience of awe and/or wonder whilst engaging with wildlife recording is regularly felt by participants. As my PhD aims to inform citizen science design in the future, I am thinking about how this key finding could be used to make signing up to biological recording schemes more appealing to the public.
A second key finding from my research is that those interviewed expressed an eye-opening range of opinions about the term ‘citizen science’ itself. These ranged from an instant identification as a ‘citizen scientist’ – “I’m one of those”, through to “It sort of reminds me of school and of data that you might record that then is ignored”. This breadth of response suggests that the use of the term is highly context-specific and needs careful thought when promoting new schemes.
Inspiring individuals were key to many people’s decision to record wildlife, and many spoke of the value of recording as a group, both for its sociality and for the particular ways that knowledge was shared within it. How mistake making was handled, and the negotiation of authority, were also important in this context, with fascinating anecdotes of both crushing and supportive responses. One participant, a highly respected expert in their taxonomic area, decided never again to study a particular invertebrate group after a humiliating snub in a group wildlife recording session.
I am very grateful to the NBN Trust for the chance to meet so many wildlife recorders and users of citizen science data; the friendly atmosphere of the Bristol conference encouraged me to speak to the great and the good, and was a highlight of the PhD.
If you are a wildlife recorder, and would like to have a short, online chat with me about your motivations, I would be delighted to hear from you. Please get in touch on ceg22@aber.ac.uk.
Also of interest….
Related to Chloe’s research, you can also read the reports carried out by the University of Exeter as part of the RENEW project – iNaturalistUK User Survey 2024 and iNaturalistUK Observation Records
