- Title
- I can't look: disgust as a factor in the zoo experience
- Creator
- Cushing, Nancy; Markwell, Kevin
- Relation
- Zoos and Tourism: Conservation, Education, Entertainment? p. 167-178
- Relation
- Aspects of Tourism
- Publisher
- Channel View Publications
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2011
- Description
- On the typical zoo website, the viewer's gaze is returned by an endearing animal. Melbourne Zoo's website features an apparently smiling elephant; an entreating lemur is posted by the Bronx Zoo; at London Zoo, a red panda plays peek-a-boo with the viewer; and representing Singapore Zoo, an orangutan cuddles her baby. These images manifest the conventional emphasis in zoo marketing on animals, which evoke positive emotions in visitors. Amusement, empathy and aesthetic appreciation fit easily with an important motivation of most zoo visitors: experiencing a fun day out with the family. But not all animals in the zoo readily elicit positive emotional responses. Reptiles and many invertebrates, such as spiders, are commonly viewed as repulsive rather than attractive and yet reptiles, in particular, are often an important component of zoo collections. These animals play a distinctive role: expanding the opportunities for emotional responses to include squeamishness, disgust, revulsion, fear and aversion, thereby contributing to the pastiche of experiences that result in a memorable visit. However, the evocation of negative emotions must be interrogated to assess its impact on claims that zoos help to develop empathy and a conservation ethos within their visitors (Frost & Roehl, 2008).
- Subject
- zoo animals; tourism; zoo vistors; negative emotions
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1325523
- Identifier
- uon:25289
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781845411640
- Language
- eng
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