Opportunity to view the starry night sky is linked to human emotion and behavioral interest in astronomy

Abstract

Prior to the modern era, the stars in the night sky were readily visible across the globe, but light pollution has created disparities in the opportunity to see these astronomical objects with the naked eye. This alteration may measurably impact human behavior. We hypothesize that light pollution is related to the development of people’s interest in astronomy, which often serves as a “gateway” to science more broadly. In a state-by-state analysis, we used location information to examine astronomy interest data for millions of US residents. Results show that, among populations with low light pollution, a feeling of “wonder about the universe” is prevalent (r = 0.50). We found that this human emotion mediates the association between low light pollution and behavioral interest in astronomy. Although the effects of light pollution on astronomy, biology, ecology, and health are well-known, the present work demonstrates that light pollution is also relevant to human scientific behavior, with broad implications for science education and society.