A growing body of research shows that spending time outdoors is good for your mental health. Getting out and about in forests and parks has been shown to increase happiness and alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety. Is the benefits universal?
A review paper says that most studies look at rich, white, western populations and that results in an incomplete picture of the health benefits.
The Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont has published the findings of a study on the relationship between nature and indigenous populations in South America. He wants to know how their mental health is affected by this.
More than 85% of the research done in the last decade was done in high-income western nations of the US, Europe and east Asia, according to a University of Vermont study. Only 4% of studies looked at nations of medium income, such as India. There were only two studies in Africa and one in South America. Most of the participants were white.
Rachelle Gould, a researcher at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, said there was nothing wrong with the existing findings. We need to know which of these effects are universal and which are culturally specific in order to influence the work and move us towards sustainable living.
Gould says that making this distinction can lead to fair policy changes.
The study builds on the concept of weird psychology, a term created by the evolutionary biologist Joseph Henrich. The acronym refers to how experiments that focus mainly on college students from western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic parts of the world cannot allow scientists to draw universal conclusions about human behavior.
Henrich, who was not involved in the study, said that the research shows a massive bias in the sampling of global populations towards those that are Weird.
Henrich said it would be useful to include more diverse populations and use culturally sensitive tools.
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