A Meta-Analysis of Emotional Evidence for the Biophilia Hypothesis and Implications for Biophilic Design
‘The biophilia hypothesis posits an innate biological and genetic connection between human and nature, including an emotional dimension to this connection’.
In this pioneering and insightful work Jason S. Gaekwad, Anahita Sal Moslehian, Phillip B. Roös (from the Live+Smart Lab, Deakin University) and Arlene Walker (from the School of Psychology, Deakin University) analyse 49 experimental studies on the emotional impacts of human exposure to natural and built environments. The study attempted to determine if exposure to natural environments would have a greater effect of increasing positive emotion and decreasing negative emotion when exposed to nature, in comparison to exposure in built environments. The meta-analysis provides evidence supporting fundamental theories regarding the benefits of human-nature connections, supporting the proposed emotional dimension of the biophilia hypothesis.
Available via open access in Frontiers in Psychology https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.750245