Across the world, zoos are seeking to understand the impact on visitors of experiences they provide.  Zoos can then incorporate this understanding into the design of their experiences to maximise the likelihood of impacting on visitors' attitudes and behaviours.

A psychology model that could assist in the design of experiences is the Elaboration Likelihood Model, which suggests that long-term attitude and behavioural impact can be achieved through hard thinking, or elaboration. If people elaborate, then they will form attitudes that are long-lasting, and are predictive of behaviour. Keeping messages simple, making them relevant and meaningful as well as entertaining are all important in aiding elaboration. Another key factor that can trigger elaboration is emotion. That is, emotional experiences provide people with an incentive to think hard and elaborate which will lead to attitudes that are long-lasting and predictive of behaviour.

This research project will explore the relationship between emotional arousal experienced through visitor experiences and the visitor's attitudes and behavioral intentions towards conservation. Two phases of the research project are planned.

Furthering a partnership with the Monash University Tourism Research Unit , Zoos Victoria is supporting a PhD research project which is exploring the relationship between the emotional intensity of visitor experiences and visitors attitudes and behavioral intentions towards conservation.