Visitor Characteristics and Museum Fatigue: A Case Study at the ETRU Museum in Rome

Highlights: What are the main findings? The emergence of museum fatigue leads to decreased viewing time, but also to increased heart rate. While viewing time trends are consistent between individuals, heart rate trends are different depending on individual characteristics. What are the implications of the main findings? Heart rate may be employed as an implicit measure of museum fatigue. Physiological measures must be considered when investigating individual characteristics linked to museum fatigue. Background/Objectives: Museum fatigue decreases visitors’ interest due to environmental, social, and personal factors. However, it remains unclear whether physiological parameters can capture museum fatigue, and whether personal factors contribute to psychophysiological changes associated with museum fatigue. Methods: To fill these knowledge gaps, 61 participants visited the ETRU museum in Rome while their position and heart rate (HR) values were continuously recorded. Emotional state was rated after the visit. Time-series analyses assessed trends in viewing time and HR across the full sample and in three clusters defined by personal factors, with correlations examining associations among visit time, HR, and emotional states. Results: Overall, viewing time decreased, while HR increased during the visit. Emotional state correlated positively with visit time, but negatively with HR. The viewing time decrease was consistent across clusters, while HR trends and correlations differed. Conclusions: These findings confirmed that environmental characteristics induce museum fatigue in the visitors and showed that heart rate may be employed as an implicit measure of museum fatigue. In addition, this study revealed that personal factors can modulate the emergence of this phenomenon.