Duh!
Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
131–140 of 303 posts
Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
#132Most of the studies in the linked APA article have all the hallmarks of the replication crisis: - Small sample sizes (O(100)) - Low correlation coefficients - Everybody is predisposed to believe the conclusion (what kind of monster doesn't like nature?) - There is zero incentive to report a negative finding And even if some of the studies do replicate, the response variable is often either self-reported, or performan…
Two points on this: (1) If you want to know how people feel, I’m afraid self-reports are the gold standard (2) Some other studies have large sample sizes (e.g. this one, which is based on my PhD: https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/49376/1/Mourato_Happiness_greater_... )
Thanks for posting your paper which I will print out and read properly!
Section 3.2 and Table 1: does the 'continuous urban' category cover e.g. a fairly large park in the middle of a city? I can't see a category for 'parkland'.
As a concrete example have a look at Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham [1]. It struck me that it is possible to be surrounded by green semi-natural parkland within the inner ring of a city of 1 million.
Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
#133Funny thing is, making cities more green isn't even _that_ difficult. I see above conversations on living closer to nature, or mountains vs parks - but the vast majority of time spent is walking and driving in the cities. So it seems a no-brainer that before everything else, before thinking about taking a 2 hour drive to hike, or making the time for a weekly visit to the park, we should first make sure the places peo…
This is part of why I love visiting Japan, so much nature scattered throughout otherwise urban areas. Lot's of other places in the world like it as well. Makes me jealous since I love in the concrete wasteland that is Phoenix.
Sweden is pretty similar, lots and lots of nature with urban areas scattered on it.
Stockholm, as an example, does it very well: a dense but small city-centre with lots of parks and greenery with the remaining sprawl outside the centre being scattered urban areas in the middle of the green with great public transportation connections.
Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
#134This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…
> pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people
I would want to meet this person.
I am a huge proponent of walkable cities, and I definitely see a city that is urban, high density and with a lot of nature.
Heck Copenhagen, where I live, do it quite well -- within 20 minutes from the absolute center of the city (eg. Noerreport), I can be with grassing Alpacas (https://goo.gl/maps/jcA6VFMPHC5qmYCp6) or I can be with large herds of deer (https://goo.gl/maps/8YDPDfTPCHhTbdps5) or I can be on huge grass lands (https://goo.gl/maps/3YxztVvYeUwSJge89), and no, these areas would not be considered regular parks.
Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Berlin, which contains many trees and parks. One of the nicest quarters of Berlin is Gartenstadt (garden city) Frohnau, which feels like houses in the forest - at decent density. So it doesn't have to be either city or nature. But I'm afraid that current cost structures and short-term thinking make another Gartenstadt very unlikely. Well. It may be that this kind of place only really works as a suburb. It d…
Berlin has large parks in the city, and even larger ones at the edges. It doesn't only work as a suburb - people in any central Kiez are within walking distance of a park. I love that city for that. Milan felt claustrophobic without all the parks.
Due to the unique history and political situation (city state), the city also just "suddenly ends", with little suburban sprawl. That said, Germany is so densely populated overall that there are few areas of "untouched" nature that the topl level commenter seems to be craving for.
Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
#136No post body was provided.
Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
#137Funny thing is, making cities more green isn't even _that_ difficult. I see above conversations on living closer to nature, or mountains vs parks - but the vast majority of time spent is walking and driving in the cities. So it seems a no-brainer that before everything else, before thinking about taking a 2 hour drive to hike, or making the time for a weekly visit to the park, we should first make sure the places peo…
I was walking in Glasgow, everything felt grey, bland and depressive. At some point I realized they have zero trees in the streets. Also means no bird sounds in the background, no green leaves adding some colors to the concrete, no blossoming in the spring. Being in a city where every street is filled with trees I realized how big of an impact it is. It is however not "easy", the old big trees you want, destroy your…
This is similar to the feeling I get when I travel from London to Manchester.
While I know London isn't everyone's cup of tea, it has a ton of parks, trees and nature compared to many other cities, and it's usually quick to dip away from the bustle into a relatively quiet oasis. You're rarely more than a 5 minute walk away from a small park.
Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two points on this: (1) If you want to know how people feel, I’m afraid self-reports are the gold standard (2) Some other studies have large sample sizes (e.g. this one, which is based on my PhD: https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/49376/1/Mourato_Happiness_greater_... )
> If you want to know how people feel, I’m afraid self-reports are the gold standard "How people feel" can't directly be measured scientifically, but it is a function of many things, some of which can be measured reliably (weight, blood pressure, money, etc). I'd rather have a reliable measurement of quantity that I believe contributes to well-being than a direct measurement of well-being that I think is unreliable.…
It's not obvious to me how blood pressure affects happiness, or how you would even prove a link here without asking people how they feel. I also feel like it is important to point out that asking people how they feel is a scientific measurement, you just have to be careful on how to use that data.
Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
> within just an hours drive Wow that's depressing, I live in a very high density area by western standards and there's 50,000 acres of pristine rainforest literally on my doorstep while the mall is 5 minutes drive away and the city centre is 15 mins. During covid even the rare and endangered gibbons would come out hang out in the street. Everytime I go back to Australia it seems like a suburban dystopia with 8 lane…
You wrote: > Woah. Where do you live? This sounds "impossible". Singapore or Kuala Lumpur?
The presence of gibbons probably means somewhere in Malaysia or Singapore
Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you want to know how people feel, I’m afraid self-reports are the gold standard "How people feel" can't directly be measured scientifically, but it is a function of many things, some of which can be measured reliably (weight, blood pressure, money, etc). I'd rather have a reliable measurement of quantity that I believe contributes to well-being than a direct measurement of well-being that I think is unreliable.…
It's not obvious to me how blood pressure affects happiness, or how you would even prove a link here without asking people how they feel. I also feel like it is important to point out that asking people how they feel is a scientific measurement, you just have to be careful on how to use that data.
> It's not obvious to me how blood pressure affects happiness
People are typically pretty unhappy following a heart attack.