Emotion and stewardship in protected nature areas

The National Park Service is in the business of promoting awe-inspiring experiences, and works on the assumption that such experiences inspire stewardship in parks, and at home. The practical goal of this study was to explore... [ view full abstract ]

The National Park Service is in the business of promoting awe-inspiring experiences, and works on the assumption that such experiences inspire stewardship in parks, and at home. The practical goal of this study was to explore whether these awe-experiences pair well with climate messages, or not, in terms of emotional responses and behavioral outcomes. A 2x3 factorial design (N = 277) assessed whether presenting a national park-focused climate change message after an awe-nature, awe-built, or calming-nature video influenced participant’s emotional states, self-reported and in-situ environmental behavior. Results revealed that participants reported feeling less relaxed and interested after reading a climate message in the awe-built condition compared to the other conditions. This partially supports the idea that interpreters cannot 'park-hop' when discussing climate change - that is, chose to tell another park's climate story because their park does not have data, or a particularly compelling climate story. For in-situ behavior, participants who viewed the nature videos were over three times more likely to sign the petition supporting a climate change campus fee. Results suggest that behavior may depend more on the setting (nature versus built) rather than the emotions induced by the setting.