Robinson Jake M, Cameron Ross, Jorgensen Anna
Department of Landscape Architecture, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom.
inVIVO Planetary Health, Worldwide Universities Network, Jersey City, NJ, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Jun 30;12:678752. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678752. eCollection 2021.
Germaphobia - a pathological aversion to microorganisms - could be contributing to an explosion in human immune-related disorders mass sterilization of surfaces and reduced exposure to biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity and people's weaker connection to nature, along with poor microbial literacy may be augmenting the negative consequences of germaphobia on ecosystem health. In this study, we created an online questionnaire to acquire data on attitudes toward, and knowledge of microbes. We collected data on nature connectedness and interactions with nature and explored the relationships between these variables. Although the study had an international reach ( = 1,184), the majority of responses came from England, United Kingdom ( = 993). We found a significant association between attitudes toward microbes and both duration and frequency of visits to natural environments. A higher frequency of visits to nature per week, and a longer duration spent in nature per visit, was significantly associated with positive attitudes toward microbes. We found no association between nature connectedness and attitudes toward microbes. We found a significant relationship between knowledge of "lesser known" microbial groups (e.g., identifying that fungi, algae, protozoa, and archaea are microbes) and positive attitudes toward microbes. However, we also found that people who identified viruses as being microbes expressed less positive views of microbes overall-this could potentially be attributed to a "COVID-19 effect." Our results suggest that basic microbial literacy and nature engagement may be important in reducing/preventing germaphobia-associated attitudes. The results also suggest that a virus-centric phenomenon (e.g., COVID-19) could increase broader germaphobia-associated attitudes. As the rise of immune-related disorders and mental health conditions have been linked to germaphobia, reduced biodiversity, and non-targeted sterilization, our findings point to a feasible strategy to potentially help ameliorate these negative consequences. Further research is needed, but greater emphasis on microbial literacy and promoting time spent in nature could potentially be useful in promoting resilience in human health and more positive/constructive attitudes toward the foundations of our ecosystems-the microorganisms.
恐菌症——一种对微生物的病态厌恶——可能导致了人类免疫相关疾病的激增、对表面的大规模消毒以及与生物多样性接触的减少。生物多样性的丧失、人们与自然的联系减弱，以及微生物知识的匮乏，可能会加剧恐菌症对生态系统健康的负面影响。在本研究中，我们创建了一份在线问卷，以获取有关对微生物的态度和知识的数据。我们收集了关于与自然的联系以及与自然互动的数据，并探讨了这些变量之间的关系。尽管该研究具有国际范围（n = 1,184），但大多数回复来自英国英格兰（n = 993）。我们发现对微生物的态度与访问自然环境的持续时间和频率之间存在显著关联。每周访问自然的频率越高，每次在自然中停留的时间越长，与对微生物的积极态度显著相关。我们发现与自然的联系和对微生物的态度之间没有关联。我们发现对“不太知名”的微生物群体的了解（例如，识别出真菌、藻类、原生动物和古细菌是微生物）与对微生物的积极态度之间存在显著关系。然而，我们还发现，将病毒识别为微生物的人总体上对微生物的看法不太积极——这可能潜在地归因于“新冠效应”。我们的结果表明，基本的微生物知识和与自然的接触可能对减少/预防与恐菌症相关的态度很重要。结果还表明，以病毒为中心的现象（例如新冠疫情）可能会增加更广泛的与恐菌症相关的态度。由于免疫相关疾病和心理健康状况的增加与恐菌症、生物多样性减少和非针对性消毒有关，我们的研究结果指出了一种可行的策略，有可能有助于减轻这些负面影响。需要进一步的研究，但更多地强调微生物知识并促进在自然中的时间花费，可能有助于提高人类健康的恢复力，并对我们生态系统的基础——微生物产生更积极/建设性的态度。
