New research challenges the image of humans as nature lovers

by Anna Wilkens, Lund University
December 4, 2025

Nature is a source of recovery and well-being for many. But research shows that there is also a growing proportion of people who experience negative emotions, such as fear, discomfort or even disgust. The phenomenon, called biophobia, is now being highlighted in new research from Lund University.

“Research has long assumed that people fundamentally feel positive feelings towards nature. We have investigated the opposite, i.e. negative relationships with nature, and gathered knowledge about how they arise, what consequences they have and how they can be broken,” says Johan Kjellberg Jensen, affiliated researcher at the Center for Environmental and Climate Science at Lund University and lead author of the study.

The study summarizes almost 200 scientific articles from different research fields and is a so-called systematic review. Research results from all over the world, including studies conducted in Sweden, Japan and the USA, have been compiled to provide an overview.

The results show, among other things, that negative emotions are shaped by both external factors such as living environment, contact with nature and media images, and internal factors such as health and emotional characteristics.

Keep reading (in Swedish): https://www.lu.se/artikel/ny-forskning-utmanar-bilden-av-manniskan-som-naturalskande

Read the Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.70019