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A few years ago, Utrecht social psychologists had a meeting with ARTIS Planetarium staff. At the Planetarium, located on the grounds of Amsterdam’s ARTIS Zoo, visitors learn about stars, planets and the vastness of the universe. The management of the Planetarium expressed its desire to not only educate visitors but also inspire them to take better care of our own planet. The social psychologists were keen to help with that, and a close collaboration between ARTIS-Planetarium and Utrecht University was born. 

The collaboration between the two institutes comprises several studies and is also visible in three ongoing PhD projects, as social psychologist and project coordinator Félice van Nunspeet explains. Van Nunspeet is researching moral behaviour and how moral responsibility can be encouraged. 

Talking to people

The Planetarium presents productions that showcase the unique characteristics of our habitable planet. Visitors receive information on how everything is connected and on humanity’s role in this. Van Nunspeet says, “Talking to people about the impact of their behaviour on the living environment can be a sensitive exercise. If you want to motivate people to change their behaviour, it doesn’t help if they get defensive. So more research is needed on how to successfully appeal to people based on morality. The collaboration with the Planetarium gives us the opportunity to test that, not only with experiments in the lab or abstract scenarios, but also in the field, with a party that can directly apply the findings.”

Lecture at ARTIS

The most recent study examined the impact of a Planetarium show on a viewer’s sense of responsibility and whether that experience encourages more sustainable behaviour. PhD candidate Mandy Muller will share the initial results on 18 November at the . In her lecture No Planet B: Who feels responsible for behavioural change? Muller will focus on climate change and a sense of responsibility. In doing so, she will draw on psychological and sociological perspectives. For instance, she wants to discover the extent to which a sense of responsibility influences behaviour, and she wonders whether behavioural change can be sparked in the same way for everyone.

Students have used smartwatches that measure heart rate and skin conductance.

Research, impact and education

In addition to the research that Utrecht scholars perform at ARTIS-Planetarium and the knowledge they share, students have the opportunity to do their thesis research there. This can take various forms. Van Nunspeet says, “In research into responsibility and moral behaviour, the use of questionnaires provides certain insights. We supplement these with physiological measurements, for example, to see how a person is affected by a moral message on a more subconscious level. Or how they are affected by a Planetarium show; to this end, students have used smartwatches that measure heart rate and skin conductance, among other things. This gives us a picture of a person’s more intrinsic commitment.

The future

In the future, Van Nunspeet hopes to expand research at the Planetarium. “We’d like to explore the impact of shows through these various methods and see what happens to ARTIS visitors when they engage in a more interactive way with their impact on our fragile Earth.”