Why Are People Drawn to Digital Exhibitions at Local Museums?

＜Overview＞
A research team led by Ai Yaotian (艾尭天), a doctoral student (at the time of the research) in the GEDES, Professor Kayoko Nohara, and Associate Professor Xinru Zhu (朱心茹) examined the digital exhibitions at the Ryushi Memorial Museum (Ota City, Tokyo) and found that visitors’ emotional connection is a key factor supporting their willingness to participate.

As museums become increasingly digitalized, particularly in local museums, the impact of the experiential authenticity visitors feel on their willingness to participate digitally has not been fully clarified. The research team therefore developed an original analytical model by incorporating elements of experiential authenticity in museum experiences into UTAUT2, a theoretical model of technology acceptance. Based on this model, they analyzed survey results from 266 people who experienced the Ryushi Memorial Museum’s digital exhibitions, using structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) methods.

The results showed that emotional authenticity, one aspect of experiential authenticity that indicates an emotional connection to exhibits, exerts a strong indirect influence on willingness to participate digitally by mediating UTAUT2 factors such as “hedonic motivation (enjoyment)” and “social influence (the desire to share with others).” Emotional authenticity was also identified as the most important factor in the model developed in this study, functioning as a foundation that underpins willingness to participate digitally.

These findings suggest that when local museums pursue digitalization, they should emphasize not only technical functions but also the creation of emotional experiences that draw on local memories and stories. For local museums working on digitalization with limited resources, this is expected to serve as a new guideline for creating exhibitions that resonate with visitors.

This work was published in the ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage dated June 18 (local time).

＜Key points＞
• Discovered that visitors’ emotional connection has a greater impact on willingness to participate in local museums’ digital exhibitions than technical ease of use
• Analyzed survey results from visitors using structural equation modeling and artificial neural networks, based on an original analytical model that incorporates experiential authenticity into the UTAUT2 technology acceptance model
• Provides new guidance for the digital utilization of local culture, centered on creating emotional experiences that draw on local memories and stories

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https://educ.titech.ac.jp/tse/news/2026_07/069945.html