By Thomas Astell-Burt, Michael Navakatikyan, Mathew P. White, Xiaoqi Feng.
This Plain Language summary is published in advance of the paper discussed; check back soon for a link to the full paper.
Spending time in natural environments, such as parks, woodlands, or beaches, can be very rewarding for our health and wellbeing. However, as many as a third of adults don’t do this regularly or at all. Some don’t because of the difficulty of overcoming certain barriers, such as the lack of safe place to cross a busy road. There is an assumption that if only we could address supply-side barriers, people would flock to natural environments to satisfy an innate love of all things nature. In fact, adults often do things for reasons other than enjoyment. For example, a person may walk the family dog on a dark rainy winter evening because they must, not because they want to.
Previous research has neglected these other sources of motivation. Therefore, we conducted a study of over 5000 Australian adults to investigate autonomous (e.g., enjoyment, values) and controlled (e.g., social pressure, guilt) motivations. Those who enjoyed spending time in nature did so more often and checked their smartphones less often while there, which is important for mental health. They also tended to have better general health, were more physically active, and were more interested in nature prescriptions. We found similar results for people who felt being in nature was part of their identity, or a means to achieve something else they valued. But results were far less impressive for people who visited natural environments to avoid feelings of guilt, or for the affirmation of others. Measuring motivations matters for maximizing health benefits of programs co-designed to enable contact with nature.
Relational Thinking 