From stress relief to environmental awareness. We explore the complex interplay between human interaction with nature and its impact on personal attitudes and behaviors. Is our quest for tranquility harmonizing with a sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle?
By Chaitanya Mamidi
Throughout history, humans have had an intimate relationship with nature, most obviously depending on it for subsistence. As modern society emerged, industrialization freed many people from their direct reliance on nature for subsistence. With increasing urbanization post-industrial revolution, human civilization started insulating itself from its ecological roots, creating a distance between human society and the natural environment. While industrial processes catering to urban consumption do depend on natural resources, the urban consumer is oblivious to this. This distance causes a romanticized conception of nature as a peaceful, idyllic place, as opposed to the busy hustle of the city. In urban settings, people-nature interactions have fundamentally shifted from direct consumption to a more seemingly mutualistic relationship where people actively seek out interactions with nature for recreation and relaxation. (Keniger, et al., 2013)
People engage in activities involving interactions with nature to find an escape from the tiring reality of urban environments and refresh their minds. Research suggests that interacting with nature improves cognitive abilities and can also help with depression and stress. (Berman, et al., 2012) Interaction with nature has also proved to be helpful in raising one’s morale and self-esteem. (Keniger, et al., 2013) A meta-analysis by Kapaldi, et al. (2014) suggests that people who are more connected to nature tend to be happier. Businesses around the world have cashed on this opportunity by investing in ecotourism, building nature-themed parks, resorts and vacation spots, and constructing residential and office complexes with a view of nature. Even governments have endorsed activities of ecotourism as not only a way of stress relief but also as a way to protect nature by improving awareness and generating revenues for local communities and public conservation activities.
Such endorsement by governments needs to be examined critically since existing research shows that the benefits of ecotourism are outweighed by its ecological costs and can have a detrimental impact on local ecosystems and communities. According to a study by Karanth and Defries (2010), ecotourist projects hardly employ locals and use massive amounts of local resources such as water and firewood that are stripped away from local dwellers and wildlife. A study by Naidoo and Adamowicz (2005) shows that the revenues generated by ecotourism are insufficient to sustain and manage ecologically sensitive areas.
While existing literature suggests that ecotourist activities broadly have a negative impact on the natural environment, there is also research that shows that interaction with nature has positive effects on people’s attitudes towards the environment. For instance, a study by Hosaka et al. (2017) suggests that childhood nature experiences have a vital role in shaping affective attitudes towards various types of wild animals. Experiences in nature are positively associated with stronger pro-environmentalism, such as emotional affinity toward nature (Kals, et al. 1999), willingness to conserve biodiversity (Soga and Gaston, 2016), willingness to pay for the conservation of urban green spaces (Lo and Jim, 2010), and pro-environmental attitude. Barton, et al. (2016) found an increase in adolescents’ connectedness to nature after a wildness expedition. Evans, et al. (2018) conducted a longitudinal study in which they found that one of the main predictors of young adults’ environmental attitude was time spent outdoors during childhood. Overall, existing literature suggests that there is a positive relationship between interactions and experiences in nature and pro-environmental attitudes.
Contrastingly, some studies show that the relationship is inverse. People who feel more connected to nature are more likely to engage in activities involving nature. Bjerke, et al. (2006) noted that people with stronger environmental beliefs reported a higher preference for activities like scenery photographing and mountaineering. Similarly, a study by Lin, et al. (2014) found that people who are more environmentally conscious were more likely to spend time in parks, gardens, and their yards. This makes us question whether the relationship between interaction with nature and environmental attitudes is positive, inverse, or just correlational.
Studies in consumer behaviour and marketing research have shown that environmental awareness and positive attitudes towards the environment do not necessarily imply environmentally friendly behaviour. Heo and Muralidharan (2017) suggest that millennials are more environmentally aware than other generations, but they have trouble converting this awareness into actual behaviour. This makes us rethink the way we associate interaction with nature to an eco-friendly lifestyle, as there is a gap between environmental awareness, attitudes, and behaviour. This study aims to bridge this gap by attempting to establish a direct relationship between a person’s interaction with nature and the eco-friendliness of their lifestyle. And to understand if interaction with nature directly influences a person to lead an environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Impact of Nature: Hypothesis
The interactions of this study are only the ones for recreational purposes. Consumptive, exploitative and other forms of interactions are not covered in this.
Online Survey
An online survey was conducted since the restrictions on movement imposed by the government to control the spread of COVID-19 made it almost impossible to conduct fieldwork and in-person surveys. As such, an online survey comprising 20 questions was carried out, in which 150 students from colleges across India participated. The survey had two sections, one to assess the degree and frequency of the person’s interaction with nature, and another to understand the eco-friendliness of their lifestyle. To calculate participants’ interaction with nature, they were asked questions about how frequently they visited ecotourist sites, how much time they spent on activities involving nature, how frequently they visited parks, gardens and zoos, and their perception of the aesthetic value of the environment. To calculate the eco-friendliness of participants’ lifestyles, they were asked about their frequency of air travel, means of transport, waste management, conscious purchasing, and spreading environmental awareness.
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