Insights from social sciences can help build an eco-surplus culture for conservation policymaking

In line with conservation social scientists, I contend that understanding how people adapt and change their attitudes and behaviors towards biodiversity concepts is crucial for tackling biodiversity loss through building an eco-surplus culture in urban areas. My argument can be defended by various studies that have confirmed the positive relationships between interactions with nature and attitudes towards biodiversity and the biophilia hypothesis.

The Biophilia Hypothesis and Mental Health

The purpose of this chapter is to highlight literature related to the benefits of spending time in nature and the usefulness of biophilic design to boost mental health. Biophilic design can increase feelings of well-being of workers or inhabitants, increase connection to purpose and meaning-making, and inspire creativity. This chapter will outline (1) research connected to the mental health benefits of spending time in nature for both children and adults; (2) a description of the biophilia hypothesis; (3) an exploration of nature, spirituality, and meaning-making through the lens of the biophilia hypothesis; (4) biophilic design and equity regarding nature access in urban areas for underserved populations; and (5) a call for increased integration of biophilic design into architecture and urban planning.

Can the Biophilia Hypothesis Be Applied to Long-Duration Human Space Flight? A Mini-Review

The International Space Station (ISS) has around 3–5 crew members on-board at all times, and they normally stay on the ISS for about 5–7months in duration. Since March 2020, 170 long-duration space missions have occurred on the ISS. Thus, long-duration space missions are an integral part of space exploration and will only continue to expand in duration as missions to the Moon and Mars are on the horizon. However, long-duration space missions present several challenges to human crew members. Most of these challenges have been associated with physiological adaptation to microgravity, including motion sickness, muscle atrophy, and cardiovascular deconditioning. While not as well-studied, another major factor to consider when planning long-duration space missions is the psychological impact of the environment on the astronauts. Astronauts living in space will be unable to access natural landscapes and other environments found to have restorative effects on psychological stress and overall well-being. On top of being unable to access these restorative natural environments, astronauts will also be exposed to the stressful, unfamiliar environment of space. The purpose of this mini-review is to first summarize the literature related to stressors associated with space. Next, an overview of the large breadth of literature on the biophilia hypothesis and restorative environments will be provided, as these may serve as relatively simple and cost-effective solutions to mitigate the stress faced during long-duration space missions. Lastly, considerations related to the design of such environments in a space capsule as well as future directions will be presented.

Enjoying Art: The Experience of Beauty from Understanding Regularities

Art production and enjoyment is a universal human behavior, yet the reasons why it evolved remain elusive. Works of art can convey strong emotions, and various authors attempted to explain the enjoyment of such emotions from an evolutionary perspective. Other authors focused instead on emergent properties of works of art: patterns and coherence, symmetry and proportions, harmony and consonance. Here, I argue that all these emergent properties fall into the definition of regularity, as well as other features that have been overlooked and yet create beauty in all arts (including literature). More precisely, I define a regular composition as having its elements arranged according to a rule that is understandable ‘a priori.’ Furthermore, I propose two novel evolutionary insights into the enjoyment of complex regularities. First, the enjoyment may stem from the drive to gain information on the environment, which would result in a preference for those arrangements that can be understood ‘a priori’ but provide information on a variety of elements. Second, because regularity is mostly a product of life, the attraction to regular stimuli might have evolved to promote the detection of living beings. This would encourage the interaction with other organisms in accordance with Wilson’s ‘biophilia’ hypothesis.

Biophilia's Queer Remnants

Evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis, that humans have a genetically influenced emotional affiliation with life and life-like processes, for some time has invigorated a prominent strain of scholarship within religion and ecology that taps into the affective dimensions of our evolutionary histories. Our biophilic tendencies coupled with the awe, wonder, and reverence evoked by these religiously resonant cosmologies, they argue, provide occasions for cultivating ethical investments rooted in genetic kinship. However, much of this work that adopts biophilia assumes a “healthy” animal-other and rarely affiliates with the ill, disabled, and mutated creatures impacted by ecological degradation. In conversation with Donovan Schaefer’s provocative new book Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power and his engagement with biophilia, this paper considers possibilities for addressing aversion to animals impacted by ecological collapse through Schaefer’s understanding of affects as not merely adaptive, but embedded within complex economies of embodiment and power.