Both biophilia and biophobia should be considered important adaptive factors in children's connectedness to nature

Olivos-Jara, P. ., Segura-Fernández, R. ., Rubio-Pérez, C. ., & Felipe-García, B. . (2020). Biophilia and biophobia as emotional attribution to nature in children of 5 years old. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00511

Research on the emotional aspects of children's connectedness to nature often focuses on biophilia and positive emotions. Biophilia – an innate and positive predisposition of affiliation to the natural environment -- allows humans to experience benefits that facilitated the development, adaptation and survival of human beings. Connectedness with nature, however, also includes a biophobic component, characterized by the feeling of fear or rejection of natural elements with an adaptive purpose. A biophobic – or emotionally negative -- response serves humans well when certain natural stimuli (such as the presence of a dangerous animal) may cause harm. The biophobic response has largely been ignored in the academic literature. This research addresses this gap by investigating the emotional attributions – both positive and negative -- of five-year-old children toward environmental stimuli.

Two separate studies were conducted, both using a valid measurement procedure to investigate the emotional attributes of 5-year-old children in Spain in response to 30 images of natural environments. Ninety-four children in the first study chose one of five emoticons (images representing basic emotions) to indicate their emotional response to each of the 30 images displayed on a computer screen. The emoticons depicted happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. The second study, involving 39 children, followed the same procedure but added surprise as an additional choice for an emotional response. Children participating in the second study were also asked to explain their responses. Time taken to administer the test with each child was approximately 20 minutes for the first study and 30 minutes for the second study.

Children in both studies responded with both positive and negative emotions to the natural stimuli. Happiness was the most common attribution; fear the second most common attribution. The emotional attributions varied, however, according to categories of stimuli. In the vertebrate category, happiness was the most frequently attributed emotion, followed by fear. The opposite was true for the invertebrate category, with fear being the most common emotion, followed by happiness. The most frequently attributed emotion in the landscape category was happiness, followed by surprise. The children's oral responses from the second study helped to explain why they made certain attributions. The most frequent explanations referred to liking and harm. Liking tended to be associated with happiness and surprise; harm, with fear.

These results suggest that both biophilia and biophobia should be considered important adaptive factors in children's connectedness to nature. This research reinforces the idea that “if the phylogenetic relationship of human beings with their environment must be resolved favorably toward survival, then a negative phylogenetic disposition, of a biophobic type, must be expected, consisting of emotions that allow an alert, safe, reaction to certain threats present in nature.”

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