“亲生物”，是人类天生本能吗？

Biophilia was originally conceived as an innate attraction of humans to the natural world.But there is little evidence that love of nature is a human instinct.The new Biophilia Reactivity Hypothesis views biophilia as a trait with large individual differences.This idea can lead to new avenues of research on the psychology of our interactions with other species.

亲近自然最初被认为是人类对自然世界的天生吸引力。但几乎没有证据表明热爱大自然是人类的一种本能。新的 Biophilia Reactivity Hypothesis 将亲生物性视为具有较大个体差异的特征。这个想法可以导致关于我们与其他物种互动的心理学研究的新途径。

Why does a walk in the woods seem so relaxing? Why do Americans spend $45 billion a year on bird watching? And why will nearly 10 percent of the world’s population visit a zoo or an aquarium this year? The great Harvard University evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson had an answer—an inborn human instinct he called "biophilia."

为什么在树林里散步看起来如此放松？为什么美国人每年花费 450 亿美元观鸟？为什么今年世界上近 10% 的人口会参观动物园或水族馆？伟大的哈佛大学进化生物学家爱德华·威尔逊 （Edward O. Wilson） 有一个答案——一种他称之为“亲生物”的人类天生本能。

In his 1984 book, Biophilia: The Human Bond with Other Species, Wilson argued that our positive emotional responses to the natural world reflect an inborn and universal component of human psychology. Wilson’s idea caught on. It has, for example, influenced a generation of urban planners and architects. And, since the publication of his book 40 years ago, the term “biophilia” has been cited more than 36,000 times in scholarly publications.

在他 1984 年出版的《亲近自然：人类与其他物种的纽带》一书中，威尔逊认为，我们对自然世界的积极情绪反应反映了人类心理学与生俱来的普遍组成部分。威尔逊的想法流行起来。例如，它影响了一代城市规划师和建筑师。而且，自 40 年前他的书出版以来，“亲生物”一词在学术出版物中已被引用超过 36,000 次。

Wilson’s concept certainly rings true to me. As a child growing up in South Florida, I was drawn to the creepy crawlies. I roamed the vacant lots around our neighborhood chasing skinks and searching for snakes and tree frogs. As a nerdy high school kid in New Jersey, I shared my bedroom with an array of exotic pets—which I now look back on with some guilt. Years later, my fascination with the worlds of other species led me to investigate alligator love songs and the personalities of baby snakes.

威尔逊的概念对我来说当然是正确的。作为一个在南佛罗里达州长大的孩子，我被这些令人毛骨悚然的爬行动物所吸引。我在附近的空地上闲逛，追逐石龙子，寻找蛇和树蛙。作为新泽西州的一名书高中生，我与一系列异国情调的宠物共用我的卧室——现在回想起来，我有些内疚。多年后，我对其他物种世界的迷恋促使我研究了鳄鱼的情歌和小蛇的性格。

Rethinking Biophilia?

重新思考亲自然？

Wilson's theory, however, has its critics. Duke University’s Vanessa Woods and her colleague Melina Knuth recently pointed out in the Journal of Bioeconomics problems with Wilson's basic idea. If, for example, attraction to the natural world is hard-wired in our brains, it should be a human universal—think dancing, language, and thumb-sucking. But it is not. (See Donald E. Brown’s list of human universals.) Indeed, Wilson himself ultimately changed his mind about biophilia being innate. In 1993, he wrote, “Biophilia is not a single instinct, but a complex set of learning rules that can be teased out and analyzed individually.”

然而，威尔逊的理论也有其批评者。杜克大学的 Vanessa Woods 和她的同事 Melina Knuth 最近在《生物经济学杂志》上指出了 Wilson 的基本思想存在问题。例如，如果对自然世界的吸引力在我们的大脑中是根深蒂固的，那么它应该是人类的普遍现象——想想跳舞、语言和吮吸拇指。但事实并非如此。（参见唐纳德·布朗 （Donald E. Brown） 的人类普遍性清单。事实上，威尔逊本人最终改变了他对亲生物性是天生的看法。1993 年，他写道：“亲近自然不是一种单一的本能，而是一套复杂的学习规则，可以单独梳理和分析。

In their article, Woods and Knuth proposed a new view of biophilia they call the Biophilia Reactivity Hypothesis. They believe biophilia should be thought of “as a temperament trait, specifically a domain-specific attraction to biodiversity.” And because it is a trait, there should be large individual differences in biophilia. Further, like other psychological traits, biophilia should be “normally distributed”—the classic bell-shaped curve in which most people fall in the middle, with fewer and fewer individuals at the high and low extremes.

在他们的文章中，Woods 和 Knuth 提出了一种新的亲生物观点，他们称之为亲生物反应性假说。他们认为，亲近自然应该被视为“一种气质特征，特别是对生物多样性的特定领域的吸引力”。而且因为它是一种特征，所以亲生物性应该存在很大的个体差异。此外，与其他心理特征一样，亲近自然应该是“正态分布”的——经典的钟形曲线，其中大多数人处于中间，处于高低两极的个体越来越少。

Individual Differences in Love of Nature?

热爱大自然的个体差异？

Woods and Knuth’s ideas are important. While I am not completely convinced that the term biophilia needs to be redefined as an attraction to biologically diverse environments, their paper got me thinking about why some people are nature lovers and others are not. Surprisingly, there has not been much research on this question. However, Japanese researchers studied individual differences in autonomic stress-related nervous system activities when people were in natural versus urban settings. Most of the 650 young men in their study showed lower levels of cardiovascular stress when they were tested in the forests. However, 20 percent of them were more stressed when they were among the trees than when they were in urban settings. Further, as Woods and Kunths would have predicted, differences in the stress responses in the forested and urban settings fell nicely along the bell curve.

伍兹和克努斯的想法很重要。虽然我不完全相信亲生物这个词需要被重新定义为对生物多样性环境的吸引力，但他们的论文让我思考为什么有些人热爱自然，而另一些人则不是。令人惊讶的是，关于这个问题的研究并不多。然而，日本研究人员研究了人们在自然环境中与城市环境中时自主神经压力相关神经系统活动的个体差异。他们研究中的 650 名年轻男性中的大多数人在森林中接受测试时表现出较低的心血管压力水平。然而，他们中有 20% 的人在树林中时比在城市环境中时承受的压力更大。此外，正如 Woods 和 Kunths 所预测的那样，森林和城市环境中压力反应的差异沿着钟形曲线很好地下降。

Biophilia in Children?

儿童的亲近自然性？

If biophilia is a trait, we might expect that predilections toward nature should appear at an early age. There has been little research on differences in biophilia in children, but I have seen it in my grandsons, Hudson and Ryland. From the get-go, Hudson was deeply drawn to animals. Now eight, he will spend hours in the little creek near his home flipping rocks for salamanders and catching crayfish, and he has a mental map of the deer trails in the woods around his house. In contrast, his older brother, Ryland, was much less drawn to the wild things. His skills were in other areas—martial arts, math, and football.

如果亲近自然是一种特征，我们可能会期望对自然的偏爱应该在很小的时候就出现。关于儿童亲生物性差异的研究很少，但我在我的孙子 Hudson 和 Ryland 身上看到了它。从一开始，Hudson 就被动物深深吸引。现在八岁的他会花几个小时在家附近的小溪里翻石头钓蝾螈和捕捉小龙虾，他在脑海中画了一张家周围树林里鹿迹的地图。相比之下，他的哥哥莱兰 （Ryland） 对野生事物的吸引力要小得多。他的技能在其他领域——武术、数学和足球。

The sociologist Arnold Arluke studied children who were unusually attracted to nature. He interviewed kids attending a summer camp that focused on animal care. Arluke called these kids “super-nurturers.” When describing themselves, they used terms like “an animal person,” “animal crazy” or “animal lover.” They said they always remembered being drawn to animals. Their parents agreed. Indeed, they told Arluke they had encouraged and nurtured their children's early concern for other species.

社会学家阿诺德·阿卢克 （Arnold Arluke） 研究了对大自然异常吸引的儿童。他采访了参加一个专注于动物护理的夏令营的孩子们。Arluke 称这些孩子为“超级养育者”。在描述自己时，他们使用了 “动物人”、“动物狂 ”或 “动物爱好者 ”等术语。他们说，他们一直记得自己被动物所吸引。他们的父母同意。事实上，他们告诉 Arluke，他们鼓励和培养了孩子对其他物种的早期关注。

Is Love of Nature in Our Genes?

对大自然的热爱存在于我们的基因中吗？

Individual differences in temperament traits should be stable and influenced by genes. Studies comparing the behaviors of identical and fraternal twins have found that genes play a role in most aspects of human individual differences. These range from basic personality traits (about 50 percent genetic) to sexual orientation (only 30 percent genetic), and dog ownership (58 percent genetic in women, 51 percent in men).

气质特征的个体差异应该是稳定的，并受基因影响。比较同卵双胞胎和异卵双胞胎行为的研究发现，基因在人类个体差异的大多数方面都起着作用。这些范围从基本性格特征（约 50% 遗传）到性取向（只有 30% 遗传）和养狗（女性 58% 遗传，男性 51%）。

Unfortunately, there are no studies on the relative importance of genes and experience on individual differences in biophilia. However, a study of 1,543 pairs of British fraternal and identical twins found that genes influenced differences in the number of visits to nature parks (48 percent genetic), public gardens (38 percent), and general orientation to nature (46 percent genetic).

不幸的是，没有关于基因的相对重要性和对亲生物个体差异的经验的研究。然而，一项对 1,543 对英国异卵双胞胎和同卵双胞胎的研究发现，基因影响了参观自然公园的次数（48% 遗传）、公共花园 （38%） 和对自然的一般取向（46% 遗传）的差异。

A Biophilia Scale?

亲生物量表？

I am enthusiastic about Woods and Knuth’s ideas because they could usher in new and exciting areas of research. For example, they suggest developing a Biophilia Quotient Scale to measure differences in biophilia.

我对 Woods 和 Knuth 的想法充满热情，因为它们可以开创新的和令人兴奋的研究领域。例如，他们建议开发一个亲近自然商数量表来衡量亲自然性的差异。

I can think of a slew of interesting questions such a scale could answer:

我可以想到这样一个量表可以回答的一系列有趣的问题：

A statistical technique called factor analysis could determine if biophilia is a single trait or is made up of separate components ("factors" in stat-speak)—for example, attraction to biodiversity and a general love of nature.

一种称为因子分析的统计技术可以确定亲近自然性是单一特征还是由单独的组成部分（统计学中的“因素”）组成——例如，对生物多样性的吸引力和对自然的普遍热爱。

Would both animal protectionists and recreation hunters score high on measures of attraction to the natural world? (My guess is yes.)

动物保护主义者和娱乐猎人在对自然世界的吸引力衡量标准上都会得分很高吗？（我猜是的。

How is biophilia related to other aspects of human life—pet-keeping, concern for animal welfare, political views, environmentalism, the Big Five Personality Traits, and others?

亲近自然与人类生活的其他方面有什么关系——养宠物、关注动物福利、政治观点、环保主义、五大人格特征等？

Do high scores on the biophilia scale predict choices in college majors, occupational pathways, or where people choose to live?

亲生物性量表的高分是否能预测大学专业、职业道路或人们选择居住地的选择？

What types of experiences influence differences in our needs to affiliate with the natural world--for example, being raised in the country versus the city?

哪些类型的经历会影响我们与自然世界联系的需求差异——例如，在乡村长大还是在城市长大？

The list goes on and on.

这个名单不胜枚举。