New research suggests that nature plays an important role as a backdrop for positive social events in life. The study, published in Scientific Reports, found an association between elements of nature and photographs taken during a fun activity, honeymoon, or vacation.
“In everyday life, nature benefits us in various ways, such as food and water. These economic values of nature can be quantified, and, through the numbers, we can see the ‘value’ of nature easily,” remarked study author Chang Chia-chen, research fellow at the BioEcon Lab at the National University of Singapore.
“However, the benefits that we receive from nature are beyond the economic values. For instance, the interaction that we have with natural space in cities or in the wild brings us fond memories, happiness, and improved wellbeing. These values are immaterial, and it is why it is generally understudied. We were interested in understanding the value of nature in terms of how nature contributes to our fond memories.”
The researchers used artificial intelligence to gather 31,534 photographs from 185 countries that had been uploaded to the website Flickr and automatically detect their content. They found that photographs tagged as #fun, #vacations and #honeymoons were more likely to contain elements of nature such as plants, water and natural landscape compared to photographs tagged #daily or #routines.
The researchers also found a positive association between the amount of nature experiences in a country and a nation’s life satisfaction score. Countries with more elements of nature in photographs tagged as #fun possessed higher life national satisfaction scores according to data from the World Happiness Report 2019.
“In our study, we find that in worldwide nature frequently serves as background to our fond memories, including when we have vacations and honeymoons, or join fun activities. This implies that people desire to experience nature for relaxation and happiness, and probably to escape away from stress in our daily routines. The values of nature are in our positive social contexts and in our fond memories,” Chia-chen told PsyPost.
But the study — like all research — has a few limitations.
“This study focused on English tags on one social media platform. This leads to a bias toward English-speaking countries and English speakers. Future studies should expand on these findings by including multiple languages and multiple social media platforms,” Chia-chen said.
“There is a rapid loss of biodiversity globally and millions of plant and animal species are under the risk of extinction. This study highlights the significance of conservation because the continuing loss of nature means we could lose the background of our fondest memories.”
The study, “Social media, nature, and life satisfaction: global evidence of the biophilia hypothesis“, was authored by Chia-chen Chang, Gwyneth Jia Yi Cheng, Thi Phuong Le Nghiem, Xiao Ping Song, Rachel Rui Ying Oh, Daniel R. Richards, and L. Roman Carrasco.