TRENDING SCIENCE: Why do we love nature? It’s in our genes

It’s no secret that spending time in nature is good for our health and well-being. Some of us enjoy the great outdoors much more than others, though. Could our genes be behind this connection?

Researchers from The University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia and the National University of Singapore carried out a study of 1 153 sets of twins to determine how genetics may affect our relationship with nature. They found that the desire to be in natural areas is influenced by genetic factors. The findings were published in the journal ‘PLOS Biology’.“Our results reinforced previous findings that a person’s environment is the predominant driver behind their enjoyment of nature,” co-author Prof. Richard Fuller from UQ commented in a news release. “But the new information on the role of genetics in shaping our relationship with nature is a significant discovery.”

Using the TwinsUK registry in what is the most thorough and widespread twin study ever performed, the research team compared the genetic heritability of two traits: how strongly a person feels connected to nature, and how often they visit natural spaces, such as public parks and private gardens. “The reason we decided to study this in twins is that we could estimate heritability based on the genetic similarities in identical twins (100%) versus genetic similarities in non-identical twins (50%),” explained lead author Dr Chia-chen Chang from the National University of Singapore in ‘The Guardian’. “If a trait, [such as the] desire to be in nature, is clearly more similar between identical twins than non-identical twins, this will then suggest a trait is heritable.”

Even though genetics play a major role, there are other factors at play. “Spending time in nature links to better health and wellbeing,” Dr Chang continued. “A twin study shows that a person’s desire to be in nature and how often they experience it are influenced by both genes and personal experiences.”“There is a genetic basis that supports the idea that there’s that innate connection to nature, but also a lot of it is under our own control, and we can really increase that and harness those benefits,” Prof. Fuller told ‘The Canberra Times’.

People who live in cities are revealing lower levels of well-being. The risk of mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety is also higher for city folk. “More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and obviously cities are places where nature has largely been replaced by built infrastructure,” Prof. Fuller concluded. “That’s had some pretty big impacts in particular on mental health. Spending time in nature is a good way of counteracting some of the ills of city living.”

“Spending a little time at home in the garden can be a great way to experience some nature, but this can’t always be achieved, especially for those in urban areas,” Dr Chang commented in the UQ news release. “Increasing accessibility to nature for urban residents through projects such as communal gardens will be hugely beneficial and will play an important part in improving people’s wellbeing overall.”