{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,8]],"date-time":"2026-04-08T18:37:58Z","timestamp":1775673478314,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,8]],"date-time":"2026-04-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1775606400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002347","name":"Bundesministerium f\u00fcr Bildung und Forschung","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["01|O1725"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["01|O1725"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002347","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002347","name":"Bundesministerium f\u00fcr Bildung und Forschung","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["01|O1727"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["01|O1727"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002347","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002347","name":"Bundesministerium f\u00fcr Bildung und Forschung","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["01|O1728"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["01|O1728"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002347","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Voluntary engagement is crucial for committed participation in Citizen Science (CS) projects. So far, the CS literature has argued that psychological ownership (i.e., subjective feelings of owning or possessing an object or entity) facilitates engagement in CS projects and is beneficial for several outcomes, such as attitudes toward CS. This paper argues that, as ownership is a self-relevant experience and facilitates effort and engagement, it should increase self-focused outcomes, such as the self-conscious emotion of pride. This is highly relevant for the CS context due to its voluntary character. In turn, pride may have uplifting effects and may trigger more engagement. Therefore, the research presented here investigated the interrelations between psychological ownership and pride in five two-month long, two-wave longitudinal field studies of a CS project on urban wildlife ecology using cross-lagged panel analyses of the data of 508 participants. It was hypothesized that ownership predicts pride over time and not vice versa, as ownership increases engagement, which in turn would trigger pride. It was found that, across all field studies combined, ownership had indeed a positive, time-lagged influence on pride. Thus, when CS participants voluntarily engage in a CS project that feels like their own, they also subsequently feel proud, which can motivate further voluntary CS engagement. The implications for the CS context are discussed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0345321","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,8]],"date-time":"2026-04-08T17:22:13Z","timestamp":1775668933000},"page":"e0345321","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The influence of psychological ownership on pride in a Citizen Science project on wildlife ecology"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5487-9506","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Hannah","family":"Greving","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Till","family":"Bruckermann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anke","family":"Schumann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Milena","family":"Stillfried","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Konstantin","family":"B\u00f6rner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Robert","family":"Hagen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sophia E.","family":"Kimmig","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Miriam","family":"Brandt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Joachim","family":"Kimmerle","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0345321.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biocon.2016.05.015","article-title":"Citizen science can improve conservation science, natural resource management, and environmental protection","volume":"208","author":"DC McKinley","year":"2017","journal-title":"Biol Conserv"},{"issue":"17","key":"pone.0345321.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8089","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1903393116","article-title":"Opinion: Toward an international definition of citizen science","volume":"116","author":"F Heigl","year":"2019","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A"},{"key":"pone.0345321.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"98","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biocon.2016.06.025","article-title":"Creating advocates for mammal conservation through citizen science","volume":"208","author":"TD Forrester","year":"2017","journal-title":"Biol Conserv"},{"key":"pone.0345321.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.5334\/cstp.126","article-title":"A framework for articulating and measuring individual learning outcomes from participation in citizen science","volume":"3","author":"T Phillips","year":"2018","journal-title":"Cit Sci Theo Pract"},{"key":"pone.0345321.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.5751\/ES-04705-170229","article-title":"Public participation in scientific research: A framework for deliberate design","volume":"17","author":"JL Shirk","year":"2012","journal-title":"Ecol Soc"},{"issue":"6398","key":"pone.0345321.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"134","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aar8379","article-title":"Citizen science, public policy","volume":"361","author":"CJ Guerrini","year":"2018","journal-title":"Science"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0345321.ref007","first-page":"48","article-title":"An ethics framework for evaluating ownership practices in biomedical Citizen science","volume":"7","author":"CJ Guerrini","year":"2022","journal-title":"Citiz Sci"},{"key":"pone.0345321.ref008","article-title":"Citizen Science: Innovation in open science, society and policy. 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