The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective

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Descola, P. Prof. Philippe Descola: winner of the 2012 CNRS Golden Medal. College de France Newsletter (July, 2015). Human-animal interactions activate the oxytocinergic system, resulting in decreased social stress and endocrinological, psychophysiological, and psychosocial effects [ 229]. Oxytocin is produced by stroking [ 230, 231], and an increase in plasma oxytocin was found in humans after 5–24 min of petting [ 232, 233]. Oxytocin is found to increase social interaction [ 234], decrease stress [ 235, 236, 237], lower pain thresholds, produce anti-inflammatory effects [ 238, 239], lower anxiety [ 240], and increase the function of the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in increased digestive function [ 241, 242]. Oxytocin may therefore be an important factor in the nature benefits received from touch.

Hulme, M. Geographical work at the boundaries of climate change. Trans. Inst. Brit. Geogr. 33, 5–11 (2008). Are some natural patterns better than others? Is there a way to design, to manage, to interpret natural environments so as to enhance these beneficial influences? The Experience of Nature is, at last, such a volume. It establishes a basic understanding of nature experiences from window box to wilderness. Krueger, R. & Gibbs, D. in The Sustainable Development Paradox: Urban Political Economy in the US and Europe (eds Krueger, R. & Gibbs, D.) 1–11 (Guilford Press, New York, 2007).

Nature and happiness

World Commission on Environment and Development Our Common Future (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1987). Wijesooriya N, Brambilla A (2020) Bridging biophilic design and environmentally sustainable design: a critical review. J Cleaner Production 283:124591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124591

Speth, J. G. The Bridge at the End of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability (Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, 2008).

Cognitive benefits

In the case of hearing, it would be interesting to partition different kinds of natural sounds to determine whether the benefits vary with the acoustic properties of the sounds (e.g., biophysical versus animal sounds or different kinds of bird song). Also, running experiments with visually-impaired individuals, such as exposing them to nature sounds, could provide insight into the nature benefits of sound. How does it work? What lies behind the power of environments that not only attract and are appreciated by people but are apparently able to restore hassled individuals to healthy and effective functioning?

Wilson, E. O. (1986). Biophilia: the Human Bond with Other Species. Cambridge: Harvard University Press But there’s an important caveat, White adds: “If you have a break from work and you’ve only got half an hour, then a wild remote place is no use to you at all.” Urban parks and trees also produce positive outcomes. Just like a little exercise is better than none, we should take­ advantage of green and blue spaces wherever and whenever we can. That’s easier said than done, though, especially for people at a socioeconomic disadvantage. Poorer neighborhoods, White notes, are seldom the ones with leafy groves and ocean views.It remains unclear precisely which elements of a view of nature are beneficial, hampering the design of natural therapy interventions or of urban greenspaces themselves. Three quarters of studies only make a coarse division between “urban” and “nature” when studying the beneficial effects of nature views [ 18], and so we remain unsure which visual elements of landscapes are responsible for the benefits. It may be that only a combination of elements in a coherent scene confers benefits, or it may be that individual elements alone are sufficient. For example, the colours of nature could be important. Blues and greens, which predominate in nature scenes are low-arousal, low-anxiety, and highly preferred colours [ 25, 26, 27], while the gray colours of urban scenes seem to result in feelings of aggression [ 28] and dominance [ 25].