Can Exhibitions Really Change Visitors’ Attitudes and Behaviors?
Exhibitions are a core part of what most visitors experience when they visit museums in person. But, I often wonder, can exhibitions actually achieve some of the more lofty goals that museums might want to accomplish, such as long-term changes in visitors’ attitudes or behaviors? For example, can an exhibition change a visitor’s perspective on or behavior related to climate change? Achieving these types of outcomes has always struck me as an uphill battle.
Recently, I listened to an episode of the Matters of Experience podcast where Ed Rodley, co-founder of The Experience Alchemists, discussed the idea of a holistic museum experience. The gist was that visitors have a lot of experiences in museums before they ever enter an exhibition that will influence how receptive they are to what the exhibition is trying to accomplish. Visitors, of course, also come into the museum with specific beliefs, values, and behaviors that are integral to who they are as people. So, can an exhibition really change any of that long-term, especially if visitors only see it one time or not even in its entirety?
I think exhibitions can affect visitors’ attitudes and behaviors, at least temporarily, but that many museums miss opportunities to do so by defaulting to the passive transfer of information as their main interpretive strategy rather than tapping into a visitor’s emotional response. In the MoE podcast, Rodley discusses examples of immersive experiences that are effective at eliciting an emotional response in the moment. One such experience used virtual reality and sensory stimuli to place visitors in the shoes of immigrants crossing the border into another country in the middle of the night. Another example is the lunch counter simulation experience at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, which uses audio and vibration to help visitors understand the experience of a civil rights activist being subjected to verbal and physical attacks. These types of psychologically disruptive experiences are not common in exhibitions, yet they can elicit an emotional response that museums can help visitors explore through reflective questions or discussion, such as the one posed in the lunch counter simulation, “How long can you last?” Still, how long can that feeling of discomfort, outrage—whatever the emotional responses might be—last once visitors leave the museum and return to their everyday lives? Is there enough of a shift in perspective to have a long-term effect?
Solutions-based exhibitions that are explicitly trying to spur visitors into action do exist, such as the Climate Solutions exhibition at the Wild Center in the Adirondacks. The exhibition uses storytelling from a non-curatorial perspective to show how local individuals and those around the world are coming up with solutions to fight climate change; the hope with this strategy is to tap into visitors’ emotions by showing relatable individuals who are creating change, making it seem possible to visitors who might not know where to start. The exhibition also invites visitors to submit their own suggested solutions for combating climate change. These “in the moment” opportunities offer visitors simple, immediate actions they can take to feel connected to a larger community that is trying to make a difference. But, how do we know this connected feeling and simple action will turn into a shift in long-term behavior? And, is that even realistic to expect?
I admittedly have more questions than answers for what museum exhibitions are capable of achieving when it comes to shifting visitors’ attitudes and behaviors. Part of the reason for this is that research and evaluation studies about long-term impacts of exhibitions are done infrequently, since many museums do not have the resources to commission them. The prior examples show that exhibitions have the potential to spark an emotional response in visitors, which museums can then turn into meaning-making by prompting reflection or suggesting simple, immediate actions. But, my central question still remains—can exhibitions realistically create long-term shifts in visitors’ attitudes or behaviors, and should museums continue to have these expectations?
