Context Matters: How Decontextualization Influences Public Perception and Conservation Attitudes Toward Barbary Macaques in Algeria

TL;DR

This study shows how social media portrayals of Barbary macaques in entertainment settings can reduce public concern for their conservation compared to videos showing them in natural habitats.

Contribution

This is the first study to examine how social media context influences public perception of Barbary macaque conservation through analysis of viral videos.

Findings

Videos of macaques in natural habitats prompted more conservation concern than entertainment contexts.

Entertainment videos led to amusement rather than concern for species protection.

Anthropomorphized portrayals may obscure threats and normalize harmful human-wildlife interactions.

Abstract

Wild animals are often shown on social media in ways that do not reflect their real lives, which can change how people think about them and even harm conservation. In this study, we looked at how people reacted to Barbary macaques, a threatened primate species, in two Facebook videos that each received over 500,000 views. We examined both written comments (720 in total) and emoji reactions (over 23,000) to videos showing macaques either in entertainment settings or in their natural habitat. We found that when macaques were shown in entertainment contexts, people were less likely to express concern for their conservation. However, when they were shown in the wild, especially when being fed by people, viewers were more critical and showed more negative reactions. These findings suggest that when animals are presented in human-like or playful ways, their real struggles and threats may be overlooked. This study highlights the importance of how animals are portrayed online, as it shapes public attitudes toward protecting them. Raising awareness of these hidden effects can help guide better communication strategies for conservation and ensure that social media supports, rather than harms, efforts to protect wildlife.

The decontextualization (the portrayal of wildlife removed from their natural ecological context through social media), can distort the public perception of these animals and harm conservation efforts. This paper presents an exploratory case study based on two highly visible Facebook videos. To explore this, we analyzed Facebook comments (n = 720) and emoji-based reactions (n = 23,024) regarding Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) in two contexts: entertainment (macaque dressed in sports attire during political protests) and natural habitat (macaque being fed soda by tourists in its forest environment). This is the first study to examine how social media context influences public perception of Barbary macaque conservation status and welfare through analysis of viewer engagement on viral videos. The results indicated that videos depicting macaques in their natural habitat elicited significantly more positive conservation sentiments (68.4% of comments) compared to entertainment contexts (6.04% of comments). Conversely, the entertainment video generated predominantly negative conservation sentiments (54.95% of comments), with viewers expressing amusement rather than concern for species protection. Videos showing macaques in natural settings, particularly when depicting problematic feeding behaviors, prompted more critical engagement and awareness of conservation issues. This pattern suggests that anthropomorphized contexts may obscure recognition of species threats and normalize inappropriate human–wildlife interactions. Given the small dataset, these findings should be interpreted cautiously and as illustrative rather than generalizable. These findings lend preliminary support to the animal decontextualization hypothesis and underscore the importance of context in shaping public perceptions of wildlife and conservation priorities.

Figures