Natural history museums, parks, and connection with nature

Abstract

Experiences in natural settings, and indirect nature experiences such as films, increase both well-being and environmentally protective behavior. Thus, public facilities such as natural history museums may facilitate pro-environmental behavior changes. In three studies, we examined nature connection, well-being, and spontaneous well-being goals as a function of exposure to museum exhibits or parks. Participants recruited in parks reported higher nature connection than those in indoor public locations. Among museum visitors, touring the exhibits did not influence nature connection, but did increase the number of pro-environmental well-being goals. When participants were randomly assigned to view a museum or a control presentation, those who viewed the museum presentation reported both higher nature connection and more pro-environmental goals. These results suggest that natural history museums and parks provide public settings in which people are more likely to be receptive to environmental information and to reflect on options for personal action.

Keywords:

• connection to nature
• natural history museums
• pro-environmental behavior
• well-being

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Shayna Bobowski for her contributions to an earlier version of the manuscript and the students of Psychology 338 and 340 for assistance with data collection for studies 1 and 2.

Notes on contributors

Katherine D. Arbuthnott, Professor of Psychology, Campion College, University of Regina. Her research encompasses attention control, autobiographical memory, mathematical cognition, and, most recently, conservation psychology, the application of knowledge about human nature and decision-making to understand and increase pro-environmental behavior. She is a member of the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE Saskatchewan) and of the President's Advisory Committee on Sustainability at the University of Regina.

Glenn C. Sutter, Curator of Human Ecology, RSM. He strives to keep ecosystems and human communities healthy by fostering a ‘culture of sustainability’ to help us meet the challenge of living well on a limited planet. He is also a musician and songwriter, specializing in songs about ‘nature, love, and the human condition.’ He is an adjunct professor at both Saskatchewan universities and a Fellow of the international Leadership for Environment and Development program.

Constance T. Heidt, Clinical psychology graduate student, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan. Constance Heidt completed her undergraduate honors degree in psychology at the University of Regina in 2013. Her honor's thesis examined the effects of distributed learning on interview skills training. Constance has since begun graduate studies in clinical psychology at the University of Saskatchewan. Her dissertation will involve using an attachment-style framework as a method of understanding chronic pain behavior.

Notes

1. There is an important distinction to be made between objective behavior and subjective concepts such as values, beliefs, and attitudes. Behavior intentions are subjective and are more strongly influenced by attitudes, beliefs, and values than is objective behavior (e.g., Webb and Sheeran 2006). In this paper, the terms intention and goals are used interchangeably to reflect subjective ideas, and the terms behavior and actions are used interchangeably to reflect objective actions.

2. The university students' field trip was unrelated to our study, and the students were recruited for the study in the same manner as the community participants, including being randomly assigned to before- and after-tour conditions. Student groups are frequent visitors to the RSM, so inclusion of these participants increased the sample similarity to the museum's typical visitors despite the constraint that visitors under 18 years of age could not be asked to participate (Research Ethics Board condition).

3. Although our focus was on the natural history dioramas and The Human Factor exhibit, located on the upper floor of the Museum, some participants also toured the exhibits located on the lower floor (First Nations and Earth Sciences) before completing their questionnaire. Details about the RSM Galleries are available at www.royalsaskmuseum.ca.

4. Identifying the environmental consequences of any specific behavior is obviously complex, which may be why there are no standard definitions of pro-environmental behavior in the literature. For instance, moving to a new house could be pro-environmental if the new house is smaller and incorporates more conservation features, but anti-environmental if it is larger than necessary and built using wasteful methods. In either case, the move itself is anti-environmental because fossil fuel is required to transfer possessions. Participants provided only very brief goal descriptions so, for the purposes of operational definition of pro- and anti-environmental for the present studies, we developed a list of judgment criteria (see Table 2), and accepted the majority judgment of the coders. Inter-coder reliability was high (.92 & .91), so we assume adequate consistency and specificity of the criteria for our purposes.

5. Given the uncertainty of time for seven participants, combined with participants who did not list goals, the number of participants entered into this analysis was 76, 38 for each condition.