A Museum Experience: Empathy and Cognitive Restoration

Abstract

The evaluation of the Museumsdorf Cloppenburg (MDC) was threefold: 1) report on MDC history and an analysis of the museum policy; 2) environmental walk-through as a qualitative pilot study; and 3) a pre-post design visitor study on the museum experience—results on this part are presented here. Visitors were asked about their experiences by two questionnaires: 1) pre: socio-demographics and several aspects of visitor behavior and expectations were ascertained; and 2) the post-questionnaire asked about their experiences during the visit. Results showed that the way-finding problems identified by the environmental walk-through were not of importance to the visitors. However, although walking for roughly three hours through the MDC, visitors reported only moderate effects of fatigue, instead impressions of mental restoration were given to a high extent. Feelings of nostalgia, refreshed minds, and having received new insights dominated the experience of the museum visit. Hence, museums seem to have some psycho-hygienic power.

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