Testing the Biophilia theory: Automatic approach tendencies towards nature

Abstract

It seems as if modern urban lifestyle disconnects people from nature, this may be associated with adverse health effects. In line with this notion it has been consistently shown that psychiatric diagnoses are more frequent in urban compared to rural regions. Most of the studies addressing potential causal mechanisms of this urban-rural difference focus on detrimental aspects of city living. In contrast, biophilia theory has posited an automatic, potentially deep-rooted need for contact with nature. Acting against this proposed tendency to seek contact to natural environments may affect mental health. As scientific evidence for this psycho-evolutionary biophilia theory is lacking by now, we utilized implicit test strategies developed to assess automatic associations between mental representations and action tendencies to put this theory to test. In an online study (N = 109), we administered three reaction time paradigms: the dot probe task (DPT), the implicit association test (IAT) and the approach avoidance task (AAT). All tasks reveal a tendency to approach nature and avoid cities (DPT: F(1,105) = 11.15, p = .001, ƞ2 = 0.096; IAT: F(1,107) = 17.10, p = 7.068E-5, ƞ2 = 0.138; AAT: F(1,103) = 4.36, p = .039, ƞ2 = 0.041). Interestingly, the results of the AAT, the only test that allows this differentiation, suggest that the tendency to approach nature seems to play a more important role than the avoidance of built environments. The present findings provide clear evidence in support of biophilia theory and can therefore inspire and foster further studies investigating whether acting against an automatic and potentially deep-rooted need for contact with nature, by living in cities e.g., may contribute more prominently to the emergence of mental health problems than (or at least in addition to) environmental or societal stressors individuals are exposed to in cities.