Viewing Strategies and Attitudes at a Nature Conservation Exhibition

Abstract

During a public exhibition illustrating the environmental problems existing in a natural area of great importance to Madrid (EI Pardo), the following information was collected from a random sample of visitors: time spent observing each photograph in the exhibition and answers to a questionnaire concerning specific environmental policies for the area. It was concluded that time spent observing each item on exhibition was related, above all, to its location in the itinerary, with visitors practicing various observation strategies according to the position of photos in the middle or extremes of the exhibition. Interest in the specific content of the photos did not seem to be correlated with the attitudes identified in the questionnaire analysis. The results of the latter were used to rank the visitors along two policy gradients: “permissiveness versus restriction” and “authoritarian versus participatory (policy).” Visitors in the oldest age group showed a tendency to agree with authoritarian and antiparticipative opinions in environmental policies for the protected area in question.