With support from Woodland Park Zoo, the Social Ecology Lab at Stanford (PI: Prof. Nicole Ardoin) is conducting a literature review examining how empathy experienced and developed during zoo/aquarium/museum visits and other free-choice and/or nature-related learning experiences can lead to conservation intentions, actions, and caring behaviors. We are reaching out to researchers and practitioners to identify relevant unpublished studies, reports, or ongoing work that could inform our review. Specifically, we are interested in research and evaluation related to:

1. How zoos/aquariums/similar organizations are fostering empathy for wildlife.
2. The influence of empathy experienced during zoo/aquarium visits and related nature experiences on visitors' conservation actions, intentions, and caring behaviors.
3. Affective relational constructs in addition to empathy (e.g., connection to nature, emotional bonds with animals) that contribute to conservation actions, intentions, and caring behaviors.

If you have conducted or are aware of any unpublished work in these areas, we would greatly appreciate your sharing it with us. This could include:

• Unpublished research reports
• Program evaluations
• Dissertations or theses
• Ongoing research with preliminary findings

We welcome contributions of any kind. Whether your work is a small-scale evaluation, an informal pilot study, or a comprehensive research project, we encourage you to share it. Our goal is to gather a diverse range of insights and the focus is not on judging the rigor or quality of individual work. Your contribution will provide valuable perspectives regardless of its scope or methodology.

All shared work used in the review will be properly cited and credited. Any unpublished work you share will be treated confidentially and not shared outside our research team. We may contact you to discuss the possibility of sharing your work more widely after completion of this project, but this would only be done with your explicit consent.

If you have any questions or would like to share relevant work, please contact Alison Bowers at awbowers@stanford.edu.