Personal messages reduce vandalism and theft of unattended scientific equipment.

ABSTRACT: Scientific equipment, such as animal traps and autonomous data collection systems, is regularly left in the field unattended, making it an easy target for vandalism or theft. We tested the effectiveness of three label types, which differed in their information content and tone of the message, that is, personal,neutral or threatening, for reducing incidents of vandalism and theft of unattended scientific field equipment. The three label types were attached to 20 scientific equipment dummies each, which were placed semi-hidden and evenly distributed in four public parks in Munich, Germany. While the label type had no effect on the severity of the interactions with our equipment dummies, the personal label reduced the overall number of interactions by c. 40-

SUBMITTER: Clarin BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4384941 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature