Sensation seeking and attitudes to aspects of national parks: a preliminary empirical investigation

This article reports the results of an exploratory study concerning the rel ationship between the personality construct "sensation seeking", operationa lized in terms of Arnett's (1994, Personality and Individual Differences, 1 6(2), 289-296) Inventory, and attitudes to various aspects of national park s. Significant relationships were observed between scores on the Intensity subscale of the Inventory and attitudes to visiting remote parks, structure d tours, presence of dangerous animals, seeking wildlife, and stimulating/c hallenging activities. Scores on the Novelty subscale of the Inventory were also found to be significantly related to attitudes to visiting remote par ks, as well as to the importance of picnic/BBQ facilities, meeting interest ing/like-minded people, and eating in untouched areas of parks. It is sugge sted that further productive research on this topic should examine the effe cts of individual difference variables in more detail, most notably age, an d other personality characteristics, as well as providing a more detailed c haracterization of park features. The analysis of markets for national park s in terms of sensation seeking and other personality variables appears to have substantial potential as a means to enhance the marketing and manageme nt of such areas. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.