Increasingly, people are becoming less likely to have direct contact with nature (natural environments and their associated wildlife) in their everyday lives. Over 20 years ago, Robert M Pyle termed ...this ongoing alienation the "extinction of experience", but the phenomenon has continued to receive surprisingly limited attention. Here, we present current understanding of the extinction of experience, with particular emphasis on its causes and consequences, and suggest future research directions. Our review illustrates that the loss of interaction with nature not only diminishes a wide range of benefits relating to health and well-being, but also discourages positive emotions, attitudes, and behavior with regard to the environment, implying a cycle of disaffection toward nature. Such serious implications highlight the importance of reconnecting people with nature, as well as focusing research and public policy on addressing and improving awareness of the extinction of experience.
With ongoing environmental degradation at local, regional, and global scales, people's accepted thresholds for environmental conditions are continually being lowered. In the absence of past ...information or experience with historical conditions, members of each new generation accept the situation in which they were raised as being normal. This psychological and sociological phenomenon is termed shifting baseline syndrome (SBS), which is increasingly recognized as one of the fundamental obstacles to addressing a wide range of today's global environmental issues. Yet our understanding of this phenomenon remains incomplete. We provide an overview of the nature and extent of SBS and propose a conceptual framework for understanding its causes, consequences, and implications. We suggest that there are several self-reinforcing feedback loops that allow the consequences of SBS to further accelerate SBS through progressive environmental degradation. Such negative implications highlight the urgent need to dedicate considerable effort to preventing and ultimately reversing SBS.
While negative perceptions of insects and other terrestrial arthropods (hereafter referred to collectively as ‘insects’) are widespread around the world, the underlying causes of this phenomenon ...remain unknown. Negative attitudes towards insects manifest as the emotion disgust, which is regarded as a psychological adaptation to produce pathogen-avoidance behavior. Based on theories of evolutionary psychology (parasite avoidance theory of disgust and error management theory), we hypothesized that there are two pathways by which urbanization increases the intensity and breadth of feelings of disgust towards insects: (1) urbanization increases the extent to which people see insects indoors, and insects that are seen more often indoors induce stronger feelings of disgust than is induced by insects seen outdoors; and (2) urbanization reduces people's natural history knowledge about insects, and decreased knowledge results in a broader range of insects eliciting feelings of disgust. To test our hypothesis, we conducted a large-scale online questionnaire survey and questionnaire experiment (n = 13,000) across Japan to quantify the association between the level of urbanization, places of insect sightings (outdoor/indoor), knowledge about insects, and respondents' feelings of disgust. Our results supported both hypothetical pathway and suggested that psychological mechanisms shaped by past evolutionary pressure to avoid pathogen infection may underlie the current prevalence of insect disgust, and this is being reinforced by urbanization. Because negative perceptions of nature can reduce motivation for its conservation, negative attitudes towards insects exacerbated by ongoing urbanization is a potential global risk for biodiversity.
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•While negative perceptions of insects are widespread around the world, the causes of this phenomenon remain unknown.•Based on evolutionary psychology, we hypothesized that urbanization is the key driver of the prevalence of insect disgust.•Large-scale online experiment and survey (n = 13,000) supported this hypothesis.•Urbanization increases the seeing of insects indoors and insects seen indoors induce stronger disgust than outdoor insects.•Urbanization reduces insect knowledge, and this decreased knowledge results in a wider range of insects that elicit disgust.
The ecology of human-nature interactions Soga, Masashi; Gaston, Kevin J
Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences,
01/2020, Letnik:
287, Številka:
1918
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The direct interactions between people and nature are critically important in many ways, with growing attention particularly on their impacts on human health and wellbeing (both positive and ...negative), on people's attitudes and behaviour towards nature, and on the benefits and hazards to wildlife. A growing evidence base is accelerating the understanding of different forms that these direct human-nature interactions take, novel analyses are revealing the importance of the opportunity and orientation of individual people as key drivers of these interactions, and methodological developments are increasingly making apparent their spatial, temporal and socio-economic dynamics. Here, we provide a roadmap of these advances and identify key, often interdisciplinary, research challenges that remain to be met. We identified several key challenges, including the need to characterize individual people's nature interactions through their life course, to determine in a comparable fashion how these interactions vary across much more diverse geographical, cultural and socio-economic contexts that have been explored to date, and to quantify how the relative contributions of people's opportunity and orientation vary in shaping their nature interactions. A robust research effort, guided by a focus on such unanswered questions, has the potential to yield high-impact insights into the fundamental nature of human-nature interactions and contribute to developing strategies for their appropriate management.
Abstract There is increasing evidence that gardening provides substantial human health benefits. However, no formal statistical assessment has been conducted to test this assertion. Here, we present ...the results of a meta-analysis of research examining the effects of gardening, including horticultural therapy, on health. We performed a literature search to collect studies that compared health outcomes in control (before participating in gardening or non-gardeners) and treatment groups (after participating in gardening or gardeners) in January 2016. The mean difference in health outcomes between the two groups was calculated for each study, and then the weighted effect size determined both across all and sets of subgroup studies. Twenty-two case studies (published after 2001) were included in the meta-analysis, which comprised 76 comparisons between control and treatment groups. Most studies came from the United States, followed by Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Studies reported a wide range of health outcomes, such as reductions in depression, anxiety, and body mass index, as well as increases in life satisfaction, quality of life, and sense of community. Meta-analytic estimates showed a significant positive effect of gardening on the health outcomes both for all and sets of subgroup studies, whilst effect sizes differed among eight subgroups. Although Egger's test indicated the presence of publication bias, significant positive effects of gardening remained after adjusting for this using trim and fill analysis. This study has provided robust evidence for the positive effects of gardening on health. A regular dose of gardening can improve public health.
Understanding the dynamics of public interest in invasive alien species (IAS) is important for the establishment of effective strategies to prevent their spread and mitigate the negative social ...impacts thereof. Our knowledge of this topic is still limited, however, largely because of the difficulty in collecting data regarding public interest in IAS at a sufficiently large scale and for a long period. Here, we use relative search volume (RSV) on Google as a proxy of the general public’s interest in IAS and investigate its spatio-temporal distributions and drivers in Japan. We analyzed the data for 31 major IAS in Japan and found that the spatial distribution of RSV was predicted by both the actual distribution of IAS and the number of news articles featuring these species. Path analyses revealed that the presence of IAS increased RSV both directly and indirectly thorough an increase in the total number of news articles in local newspapers. Also, time-series analysis of the RSV for serial invasion of
Solenopsis invicta
, a recently detected IAS in Japan, demonstrated that the local RSV for this species increased sharply after the official announcement of its invasion was made. Overall, our study demonstrates that public interest in IAS varies greatly both spatially and temporally, and this variation was predicted by both ecological and social factors associated with IAS. Understanding the patterns of variation in public interest in IAS and its key drivers should help us to design more responsive and effective strategies to control these species.
•We performed an online questionnaire survey among 1048 people in Tokyo, Japan.•Probability, frequency and duration of urban greenspace use were investigated.•Multiple landscape and personal factors ...affected the levels of greenspace use.•Probability of greenspace use was determined mainly by nature orientation.•Greenspace placement and quality, rather than quantity per se, were more important.
As the world becomes more urbanised, people are becoming progressively disconnected from nature. This large-scale disengagement of humans from nature, or “extinction of experience,” is viewed both as a major public health issue and as a fundamental obstacle to halting the global biodiversity crisis. For most of humanity, urban greenspace is the primary means by which someone can directly interact with nature in their daily lives. A key challenge is how to facilitate the active engagement of urban residents with that environment. Here, we examined the drivers of people’s use of urban greenspaces in Tokyo, Japan. In an online questionnaire, participants (n = 1048) provided information on socio-demographics, frequency and duration of greenspace use in the prior 2 weeks, and the extent of their positive attitudes towards nature (nature orientation). We also measured the structure of the neighbourhood landscape surrounding each participant’s home. The probability of greenspace use (i.e., whether an individual used it) was determined mainly by nature orientation, but also by the number of greenspaces around the home. Frequency and duration of greenspace use were positively associated with the number of vegetation types near the home and with individuals’ nature orientation. Overall, our results showed that urban residents’ use of neighbourhood greenspaces is driven by multiple landscape- and orientation-related factors. Thus, to reduce the extinction of experience, policy makers should not rely on a single management or policy approach but should combine various approaches in ways that will effectively promote people’s direct nature experiences.
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•We examined roles of zoos and animal animation on citizen’s interest and behaviors.•We use animal-related Internet searching behaviors and donations to zoos.•Both zoos and anime ...increase public interest in and support for endangered animals.•They have a great potential to contribute towards global biodiversity conservation.
Raising public interest in and conservation activity for threatened species is critically important for successful biodiversity conservation. However, our understanding of what influences the public interest in threatened animals and how the interest induces conservation activities is quite limited. Here, we examined the role of zoos and a television program featuring animated animals in shaping public interest in and support for animals including threatened species from 2011 to 2018 in Japan. Public interest was measured by Internet search volumes and support by donation activity in zoos. Results showed that both zoos and the animated program made a significant contribution to increasing public interest in animals. The spatial distribution of the Google search volume for 92 animals was correlated with that of animals exhibited in zoos. In tandem with this, the broadcast of a Japanese animated TV program featuring animals (Kemono Friends) increased the Google search volume and Wikipedia pageviews for animal species featured in the program. The total increases of search volume and Wikipedia pageviews were estimated to be approximately 4.66 million for 37 species and 1.06 million for 63 species, respectively. Furthermore, after the original broadcasts of the program, we found that animals featured in the animated program had more financial supporters through donations than animals that were not featured. These results are striking because they indicate the increase in public interest led to actual conservation activity by citizens. Overall, our results demonstrate that both zoos and the animated TV program played important roles in promoting public interest in and support for threatened animals. Enhanced collaborations between people in the entertainment industry and conservation entities could contribute greatly to global biodiversity conservation.
•We performed a questionnaire survey among 5801 Japanese children.•Children’s levels of direct experiences with neighbourhood nature were assessed.•Multiple environmental and personal factors ...determined children’s nature experiences.•Urbanisation decreased the frequency of direct experiences with local biodiversity.•Family members’ nature orientation was the strongest determinant.
In our increasingly urbanised world, children are becoming disconnected from the natural world. This progressive separation of humans from nature, “extinction of experience,” is viewed both as a major public health issue and as one of the fundamental obstacles to halting global biodiversity loss. Thus, it has become increasingly important to understand what drives and limits children’s direct experiences of nature. We administered a large-scale questionnaire to 5801 children from 45 elementary schools in Tochigi, central Japan. Children were asked to provide information on frequency of nature experiences, extent of nature relatedness, time pressure, inclination towards screen-based media, and their family members’ attitudes towards nature-based activities (family members’ nature orientation). We also calculated the proportion of urbanised areas within a 1-km radius of each school. Results showed that the frequency of children’s nature experiences was significantly positively associated with individual nature relatedness and family members’ nature orientation; time pressure and inclination towards screen-based media were not significantly negatively related to children’s frequency of nature experiences. Degree of urbanisation had significant negative influences on the frequency of direct experiences of nature. Male children participated in nature-based activities more frequently. Overall, our study demonstrates that children’s direct engagement with neighbourhood nature is shaped by multiple opportunity- and orientation-related factors, which has important policy implications as it implies that there can be no simple, straightforward way to promote children’s nature experiences. Thus, to minimise the ongoing extinction of experience, a variety of different and complementary approaches must be taken.
•Levels of childhood experiences with neighborhood flowering plants were assessed.•Older people tended to report higher frequencies of childhood nature experiences.•Older people had experienced more ...diverse plant species during childhood.•Decline in childhood nature experiences was evident in both urban and rural areas.•Extinction of experience has steadily grown among the Japanese population.
People are becoming less likely to experience nature, as we become an increasingly urban society. This progressive disengagement of humans from the natural world, “extinction of experience”, has been viewed both as a key public health issue and one of the most fundamental obstacles to halting global environmental degradation. However, while the existence and significance of the phenomenon are generally agreed upon, it remains surprisingly poorly documented, particularly at large scales and over the longer-term. Here, we report the findings from a web-based questionnaire survey (n = 1147) to assess the extent of people’s childhood experiences with neighborhood flowering, plants, one of the most popular and visible group of organisms, in Japan. Results showed that people’s levels of childhood experiences with neighborhood flowering plants were positively related to their age: older participants, compared to younger ones, reported higher frequencies of childhood experiences with neighborhood flowering plants. The reported number of neighborhood flowering plant species that participants have directly experienced during childhood was also higher for older participants. Among the 21 flowering plant species we investigated, age-related decline in direct experiences during childhood was observed for 9 species, particularly for those that depend on grasslands (an ecosystem that has been in dramatic decline over the last few decades). Participants’ age and childhood environment (urban vs. rural settings) also had significant effects on their levels of childhood nature experiences. Overall, our results suggest that children’s direct connection to neighborhood biodiversity is indeed progressively dwindling, which can have serious implications for public health and biodiversity conservation.
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