University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martinistraße 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany.
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for the History of Emotions, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin, Germany.
Environ Res. 2024 Nov 1;260:119573. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119573. Epub 2024 Jul 6.
The beneficial effects of nature exposure have been repeatedly documented and encourage frequent and regular contact with nature and especially highlight forests. However, in human history, forests have also been associated with negative emotions such as fear and were seen as dangerous environments. While existing literature could demonstrate that natural environments can evoke fear, the focus was on the explicit perception. Given that research has shown the significance of additional implicit processes in fear-related behaviour, we aim to explore the presence of an implicit fear response to forests. Therefore, in an online study, we investigated the explicit and implicit fear reactions to forests by a Northern German sample of N = 256. Using three explicit measurements, we investigated fear and danger perception on a semantic and visual level of the stimulus category "forest" compared to the human-made urban green space "park" and the urban setting "house". Additionally, we assessed the unconscious response tendencies towards the forest within three implicit tasks: Subliminal Priming Procedure (SPP), Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) and Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT). Within the analyzed sample, the subliminally presented word forest evoked a stronger positive valence response compared to park (SPP). In contrast to houses, the forest showed a stronger approach and weaker avoidance tendency (AAT). At the same time, both the three explicit and one implicit measurement (AMP) showed a stronger fear perception of forests compared to parks or houses. Considering the increasingly utilised beneficial effects of nature in interventions, these findings should be acknowledged when implementing nature exposure in interventions and treatments.
暴露于自然环境的益处已被反复证实，鼓励人们经常且定期接触自然，尤其是森林。然而，在人类历史上，森林也与负面情绪相关联，如恐惧，并被视为危险的环境。尽管现有文献表明自然环境可以引发恐惧，但重点是明确的感知。鉴于研究表明，在与恐惧相关的行为中，额外的内隐过程具有重要意义，我们旨在探索对森林的内隐恐惧反应。因此，在一项在线研究中，我们调查了 256 名来自德国北部的参与者对森林的外显和内隐恐惧反应。我们使用三种外显测量方法，比较了刺激类别“森林”与人为的城市绿地“公园”和城市环境“房屋”在语义和视觉层面上的恐惧和危险感知。此外，我们在三个内隐任务中评估了对森林的无意识反应倾向：潜意识启动程序（SPP）、情感归因程序（AMP）和接近回避任务（AAT）。在所分析的样本中，与公园相比，潜意识呈现的单词“森林”引发了更强的积极情感反应（SPP）。与房屋相比，森林表现出更强的接近倾向和更弱的回避倾向（AAT）。同时，三种外显测量方法（AMP）都显示出对森林的恐惧感知强于公园或房屋。考虑到越来越多地将自然的有益影响应用于干预措施，在实施自然暴露干预和治疗时，应该认识到这些发现。
