New Zealanders' connection with the night sky

This is a preprint (non-peer reviewed version) of a manuscript. 
Keywords: Artificial light at night; ALAN; dark sky; night sky connection; light pollution; natural darkness

Abstract 

Anthropogenic light at night (ALAN) is increasingly recognised as a driver of environmental change, yet little is known about public perceptions of natural darkness and support for its preservation. This study presents the first nationally representative survey of New Zealanders’ connection with the night sky and their attitudes towards ALAN across five domains: astronomy, the environment, energy consumption, public health, and culture. We found high levels of emotional and aesthetic appreciation for the night sky, with 50.1% of respondents strongly or totally agreeing and an additional 27.2% moderately agreeing that preserving dark night skies is important to them. Conditional inference tree analyses revealed that the most consistent predictors of night sky connectedness were positive attitudes towards darkness - particularly beliefs linking darkness at night to human wellbeing - and the frequency of sky gazing at night. Contrary to previous assumptions, demographic factors (including sex, age, ethnicity) and urban–rural location were not significant predictors of either night sky connectedness or support for dark sky preservation. While ALAN was regarded as an important issue across multiple domains, levels of concern were greatest in relation to astronomy and environmental impacts, and lowest in the cultural domain. These findings provide empirical support for the Dark Sky movement and offer timely input into lighting guidelines and policy discussions in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond.