Afraid of Nature? You May Be One of the Many People Around the World With Biophobia
A walk through the woods, a trek around the mountains, a stroll along the shore — they’re a dream for some, and a nightmare for others. In fact, while the majority of people appreciate nature and the natural world, an increasing minority may dread them, feeling fear, distress, and disgust when it comes to the outdoors, according to a new study in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
“Research has long assumed that people fundamentally feel positive emotions toward nature,” said Johan Kjellberg Jensen, a study author from Lund University in Sweden, according to a press release. “We have examined the opposite, that is, when there is a negative relationship with nature, and gathered knowledge about how it arises, what consequences it has, and how it can be reversed.”
Read More: The Mental and Physical Benefits of Getting Outdoors
Biophobia, a Fear of Nature
As natural beings ourselves, it would make sense for our species to foster positive feelings toward plants and animals. But there are several studies and articles out there, including those in Trends in Ecology and Evolution and People and Nature, that suggest that people’s opinions of nature are actually much more complicated, with some folks feeling a natural affinity for the outdoors, and others feeling a natural aversion.
Setting out to address this surprising complexity, Kjellberg Jensen and a team of researchers turned to approximately 200 scientific studies and summarized their results. Reviewing scholarship from teams in Sweden, Japan, and the U.S., the researchers created a comprehensive framework for studying the causes and consequences of “biophobia,” or the fear of nature, in addition to its treatment.
Specifically, they found that an aversion to nature arises from a combination of factors, including a person’s surroundings and exposure to nature and natural media, as well as their emotions and mental and physical health. Their framework also stresses that people’s opinions of the outdoors, and of the plants and animals within, are worsening, and could continue to worsen as people spend the majority of their time indoors.
“Urbanisation combined with parents’ attitudes can increase negative feelings and perceived danger in nature among children,” Kjellberg Jensen added in the release, “which becomes particularly relevant as more and more children grow up in cities.”
Read More: ASMR of Nature: How Natural Sounds Can Lower Stress and Improve Anxiety and Depression
Fighting Against the Fear of Nature
Whatever the causes, the consequences of biophobia are clear. Clashing with conservation and public health efforts, an aversion to nature — the team’s framework suggests — can create animosity against species, whether those species are harmful, harmless, or helpful to humans, and can prevent people from taking advantage of nature’s numerous benefits for human health, including its abilities to soothe pain, assuage stress, and improve the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
As such, the team asserts that it is imperative to expand our exposure to nature and to invest in natural spaces and nature sanctuaries to stave off our fear of the natural world, both today and in the future.
“The phenomenon of biophobia is broad and requires a diverse toolkit,” Kjellberg Jensen added in the release. “In some cases, it is about increasing knowledge and contact with nature; in others, it could be about reducing points of conflict between humans and nature. We need to understand the mechanisms behind the negative emotions better to reverse the trend.”
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