Both Direct and Vicarious Experiences of Nature Affect Children's Willingness to Conserve Biodiversity.

ABSTRACT: Children are becoming less likely to have direct contact with nature. This ongoing loss of human interactions with nature, the extinction of experience, is viewed as one of the most fundamental obstacles to addressing global environmental challenges. However, the consequences for biodiversity conservation have been examined very little. Here, we conducted a questionnaire survey of elementary schoolchildren and investigated effects of the frequency of direct (participating in nature-based activities) and vicarious experiences of nature (reading books or watching TV programs about nature and talking about nature with parents or friends) on their affective attitudes (individuals' emotional feelings) toward and willingness to conserve biodiversity. A total of 397 children participated in the s

SUBMITTER: Soga M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4923986 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature