Human-nature connection and soundscape perception: Insights from Tierra del Fuego,Argentina

Human disconnection from nature is thought to have contributed to the environmental crises we currently face, and increasing connection with nature has been proposed as one way of promoting pro-environmental behavior, nature conservation, and social-ecological sustainability. Some efforts to increase connection with nature (“nature relatedness”) have centered on exploring the social-ecological importance of soundscapes, but there is a paucity of empirical evidence supporting the theoretical linkage between soundscape perception and nature relatedness. Using prerecorded and in situ soundscape prompts, we conducted a street intercept survey in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina to assess: 1) the relative importance of senses in experiences of nature, 2) the relationship between nature relatedness and soundscape perception, 3) differences in soundscape perception between various soundscapes, and 4) possible sociodemographic influences on sense importance, nature relatedness, and soundscape perception. Participants reported that hearing was of secondary importance to vision in experiences of nature. We also found that nature relatedness was positively correlated with the valuation of soundscapes—particularly more natural ones—but not with the discernment of soundscapes or identification of where soundscapes were recorded. Valuation of more natural soundscapes was higher than valuation of more technophonically dominated soundscapes, while soundscape discernment and location identification were higher for soundscapes that were likely more familiar to listeners. Sociodemographic influences on these variables were minor, but women reported higher sense importance, and having a nature-based occupation was associated with higher nature relatedness and valuation of a soundscape from a penguin colony. Our study highlighted a number of potential research areas concerning soundscape perception, including differences between prerecorded and in situ soundscape prompts, defining various aspects of soundscape perception, and the relative influences of sound sources and quantitative acoustic parameters on soundscape perception. Further research is certainly needed to account for global diversity in cultures and soundscapes, but we found some promising empirical support for the use of natural-soundscape-focused educational programs in efforts to promote nature relatedness.