Exploring the relationship between urban dwellers’ connection to nature and tolerance towards interaction with wild nature

• Main Author: Chua, Keng Fang
• Other Authors: Michael David Gumert
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73913
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The rapid increase in urbanisation resulted in the psychological and physical separation between humans and nature. Thus, developing a connection to nature, where one sees themselves as part of nature, has become a mantra to mitigate global environmental problems. This paper aims to investigate (1) if exposure to wild nature would decrease connection to nature and (2) given that nature experiences for urban dwellers are confined within urban nature, we seek to understand urban-dwellers’ response towards interaction with wild nature by exploring the relationship between connection to nature and tolerance. Tolerance is defined as one’s ability and willingness to interact with wild nature while experiencing lower level of negative affective responses (disgust, discomfort, fear). 77 participants were recruited. Through a field study, participants interacted with two wild natural stimuli – an earthworm and a wild forested area. Measurement of connection to nature was taken before and after exposure and participants were asked to rate their affective responses after each condition. Results found that exposure to wild nature resulted in an increase in connection to nature and connection to nature was significantly correlated to tolerance towards interaction with wild nature. NR-Experience was a significant predictor of tolerance. This suggests that positive effects of direct experience with nature is generalisable to experience with wild nature and individuals with a higher physical familiarity with nature were also more tolerant towards interaction with nature. Future studies can develop on the idea of ‘tolerance’ to better understand urban dwellers’ responses when interacting with wild nature.