Significant research exists that has explored the connections between experiences in nature and further communication about those experiences. These communications include verbal and digital images, shared with friends, family, or future self. Findings show that exposure to nature inspires consequent communications. Much of that research also looks at how these experiences and communications affect a person's perceptions of the environment, emotions, and pro-environmental behaviors. Communication allows for development of experiences and gives the person time and space to create meaning. The “biophilia hypothesis” describes human propensity to experience nature-related emotions; research has shown that these emotions drive people towards certain positive behaviors. This study proposes how specifics of park design can contribute to nature-related emotions, perceptions, and behavior.
The researcher gathered data through in-person interviews with 33 park visitors at 4 different parks in Raleigh, North Carolina. Raleigh was used for the research because of its size, diverse population, and varied types of parks. The author conducted interviews until the responses ceased to lend new perspectives, reaching sample saturation. These interviews were done with the intent of finding out with whom, through what means, and about what people communicate regarding nature experiences. The research also looked into initial motivations for coming into nature, personal perceptions and emotions about the experience, and how the experience and consequent emotions affect their behavior.
This study employed novel methods to analyze this data, combining in-person surveys and Social-Network Theory (SNT) – allowing researchers to explore why and how people communicate on the micro-scale to analyze individual interviews instead of just social networks as a whole. This specific use of SNT allows the researcher to find out aspects of the visitors' communications such as if, with whom, about what, why and how they communicate about their nature experiences, not just finding out whether or not they communicate. Using SNT instead of simply summarizing each interview allows for further comparison and analysis of the data.
The results of the surveys showed that participants most often communicate about their experiences with friends and “future self.” In other words, participants cited taking photos of scenery so that they can look at them later or to capture a unique occurrence, like a beautiful sunset. They typically communicate verbally or on social media platforms, mainly Instagram and Facebook. These communications were often done with the goals of bonding or to encourage people to go into nature. The results also found that people initially travel into nature to engage in an activity or an experience. These definitions are vague, but activities included relaxing and exercising and some experiences encompassed aesthetics and quietness. Interestingly, females were found to be more likely to share with the researcher that their nature experiences affect their behavior and attitudes about the environment. Contrary to some prior research, age and time spent outdoors did not correlate significantly with a person's likelihood to report that their experiences affect their attitudes and behaviors towards the environment. Additionally, the researcher found that certain design characteristics have the potential to enhance visitor experience and increase the likelihood that the visitor will communicate about the experience. Some of these influential characteristics include water features, areas that allow for solitude, shade, trees, and restful sitting places.
Limitations of this study include a very small sample size in only one city. While Raleigh is somewhat diverse, having multiple cities would allow researchers to capture a fuller spectrum of diversity, including ideologies. The author recommends future studies be done that explore the relationships between the outcomes explored in this study and education, socio-economic, and ethnic/racial differences. Additionally, the author did find that design characteristics of parks could enhance visitor experience and likelihood to communicate, but he suggest looking further into specific design aspects.
The Bottom Line
This research shows that experiences in nature is positively correlated with self-assessed favorable behaviors and attitudes towards the environment. Experiences in nature are also often followed up by communication with one's social network about the experience. This encourages others to have similar nature experiences. This can be applied to more formal environmental education settings by showing the benefit of getting out into nature and supporting more hands-on, participatory lessons and experiences within a school setting. We can also learn from these results the benefits of discussing and debriefing about nature experiences. It is important for educators, parents, friends, etc. to follow-up on environmental exposure in order to solidify knowledge and attitude changes.