To Touch and to Smell – a Nature Experience that Creates Happiness

To Touch and to Smell – a Nature Experience that Creates Happiness

It was American writer Alfred Joyce Kilmer who, more than a century ago, wrote a prescient poem giving homage to nature: “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in summer wear a nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”

You may have noticed where you live – and it has been very prominent in Israel – that during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the trend was home gardening. The social media were flooded with a plethora of photos of pot plants and close-ups of colorful succulents. According to researchers, the change in trend can be explained by the fact that the second lockdown found Israelis in lower spirits that even baking cakes and cookies found it hard to lift. The forced stay that kept entire families indoors turned even the brightest, most beautiful homes into traps that created a sense of being closed in, and their residents tried to mitigate its impacts with a little greenery on which they could feast their eyes and spirits.

Numerous research studies have supported this intuitive choice, demonstrating the importance of nature and green spaces to people’s emotional and physical wellbeing. However, a new study by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa has shown that “feasting one’s eyes on greenery” is merely the tip of the iceberg. “The increasing alienation of people from nature is profoundly concerning because people’s interactions with nature affect well‐being, affinity for nature, and support of biodiversity conservation. Efforts to restore or enhance people’s interactions with nature are, therefore, important to ensure sustainable human and wildlife communities, but little is known about how this can be achieved. To benefit emotional wellbeing, people must get close up and physically touch natural elements,” according to the researchers.

The study, just published in the journal Conservation Biology under the title “Promoting meaningful and positive nature interactions for visitors to green spaces,” found that interaction with nature alone is not enough. For significant benefits to be derived, they found it is important that planners design green spaces that positive and close interaction with nature. The effect of interaction of this kind occurs in two stages; in the first, “cues of close psychological distance” such as smelling and touching natural elements increase the state of nature relatedness. This state in turn intensifies the pleasure derived by participants.

Professor Assaf Shwartz (Photos from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology)

Dr. Liat Levontin (Photos from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology)

The researchers, Prof. Assaf Shwartz and Dr. Agathe Colléony of the Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, and Dr. Liat Levontin of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management explain that closeness to nature improves wellbeing more than passive exposure or simply looking at the green landscape. Based on a survey of 1,023 visitors at Ramat Hanadiv Nature Park at the southern end of Mount Carmel (dedicated to the memory of Baron Edmond de Rothschild), they found that the closer the interaction with nature – interaction that included touching natural elements or smelling flowers – the more the positive affect of visitors was enhanced following the visit to the nature reserve, compared to other visitors who experienced nature from a greater distance (by simply taking a walk).

“Our research has shown that people who have an emotional affinity for nature are generally happier and derive greater benefit from visits to green spaces or nature reserves,” explained Shwartz. “People today are increasingly alienated from nature, and this has negative implications on their health and wellbeing and on the importance they attribute to the world of nature. It’s important to plan green spaces that enable significant interactions with nature to improve our affinity to nature and emotional wellbeing.”

Dr. Agathe Colléony (Photos from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology)

Following these findings, the researchers conducted an experiment among 303 Technion students. All participants spent 30 minutes outdoors on campus, with each assigned one of nine different cues-to-experience to perform while walking. These included smelling flowers, taking photographs of nature, touching natural elements or turning off their phones. The findings showed that participants assigned cues of close psychological distance from nature (smelling and touching natural elements) indeed felt closer to nature and felt better after the walk than the control group (with no cues).

Contrary to the prevailing opinion that it is important to experience nature undisturbed, participants who were asked to turn off their phones during the walk interacted less with nature and reported both an increase in their negative feelings and a decrease in positive feelings after the walk was recorded. “Turning off the phone may possibly cause people to think about it more and lead to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and does not enable significant interaction with nature,” said Levontin. “I think we all felt it in the recent lockdowns. But it’s possible that as a result of our growing alienation from nature, planning green spaces is not enough to create a significant nature experience and contribute to quality of life, so thought must be given to how to encourage people to go outdoors and enhance their nature experience.”