Vampires Are Still Alive: Slovakian Students' Attitudes toward Bats

TLDR

Animals perceived as disease threats often conflict with human appreciation, even when endangered. The study assessed undergraduates’ knowledge, attitudes, and myth beliefs about bats. A 46‑item Likert questionnaire was factor‑analysed, yielding five reliable dimensions (α = 0.93). Students with greater bat knowledge held more positive attitudes and fewer myths, yet many still feared bats; females were slightly more negative and myth‑inclined than males, and widespread myths persisted across majors, indicating that increased public awareness could mitigate avoidance.

Abstract

Animals that pose a threat of disease are often in conflict with human appreciation of them, despite that they may be endangered in nature. This study examined undergraduate students' knowledge of, attitudes toward, and belief in myths about, bats, controversial animals well known both from mythology and movies. Factor analysis was applied to 46 Likert-type items (Bat Attitude Questionnaire) and five dimensions with high reliability (α = 0.93) were derived. It was found that the level of knowledge significantly influenced attitudes to, and belief in myths about, bats. Students more aware of the biology of bats showed more positive attitudes to them and less belief in myths about them than students with less knowledge of the biology of the bat. Males showed greater knowledge of bats than females, but even after controlling for the effect of knowledge, females had slightly more negative attitudes toward bats and greater belief in myths about them than did males. A substantial number of students reported a serious fear of bats. Myths about bats were very pervasive in all subgroups, being similarly distributed amongst biology majors and non-majors. These results suggest that greater public awareness could balance human avoidance of bats, something that is promoted by an evolutionary predisposition to avoid potential disease threats. Effective interventions and public awareness should therefore result in more positive attitudes toward these controversial animals.