Visiting Parks Makes Us Happier, So Why Don’t We Do It More?

Gardens by the Bay, Singapore

Source: Elina Sazon/Pexels

As evidence continues to mount for the variety of psychological, societal, and health benefits of interacting with natural spaces, cities around the world are embarking on a journey to improve access to urban greenspaces (see C40 backed efforts, and programs in Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, Medellin, and Dhaka to name a few).

These efforts at the planning level are designed to remove some structural barriers to engaging with nature. However, these structural barriers are only one piece of the puzzle. New research out of Singapore, published in Landscape & Urban Planning, sheds some insight into the individual, intrinsic barriers. That is, what are the attitudes and ideas that we hold which get in the way?

Barriers to Visiting Urban Parks

In a recently published article, Angelia Sia and colleagues (2023) analyzed a series of surveys collected from over 1,000 residents of Singapore. Based on how many times they visited parks in the past year, the residents were grouped into frequent park users (604 individuals), infrequent park users (541 individuals), and non-users (251 individuals).

The researchers examined structural factors: whether residents lived close to parks (physical accessibility) and whether participants felt like parks were accessible (perceived accessibility). Importantly, they also looked at intrinsic, individual factors: their connection to and affinity for nature, or "nature orientation," using the Nature Relatedness scale (Nisbett & Zelenski, 2013), as well as whether they were interested in participating in local greening and conservation efforts. Lastly, they examined the role of demographic features (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity), whether individuals’ friends and family also visited parks (social norms), and how much free time they had (leisure time).

The researchers found that while perceived accessibility increased the likelihood of park visits, objective physical accessibility did not. That is, simply being close to a nearby park wasn’t related to park usage–what mattered was that residents felt that parks were accessible to them. Further, they found that for people who were already visiting parks frequently, the only factor that predicted their desire to spend time in parks was a stronger nature orientation. Neither social norms nor perceived accessibility mattered in this group. In contrast, for individuals who visited parks less, other factors, such as whether their friends and family visit parks (social norms) and perceived accessibility, were associated with whether they reported a desire to visit parks. The amount of leisure time was not predictive, however, suggesting that it is not simply that people are too busy to visit parks.

These distinctions are important in light of another key research finding–that visiting more natural spaces was related to better well-being.

Ways to Increase Nature Exposure

So what does this mean for the city planners, behavioral scientists, and citizens? As the access to and engagement with nature is increasingly viewed as a necessity rather than a luxury (Bratman et al., 2019), it’s important to note that simply increasing park acreage may not be enough to increase nature exposure for city residents. While rectifying inequitable access to greenspaces is a necessary step (Nardone et al., 2021; Chen et al., 2022), finding ways to encourage and foster connectedness to nature is another crucial element.

From a scientific perspective, it is worth noting that this work by Sia et al. (2023) comes from a cross-sectional survey, limiting our ability to draw causal conclusions. However, this study replicates several key findings in the field, including the strong link between nature orientation, nature exposure, and well-being. Additionally, it sheds light on what might prevent individuals from reaping the benefits of nature in a city that has already done considerable work to expand its physical greenspace infrastructure.

Importantly, as the behaviors of friends and family appear to play a role for those not already frequent users, one avenue to increase park use, connectedness to nature, and, subsequently, well-being might be through these social norms. Indeed, while the idea that we all have an innate affinity for nature has been pervasive in environmental psychology (Kellert & Wilson, 1995), a more recent study examining environmental preferences in children suggests that this affinity might be learned over time and is shaped by more nature exposure and the attitudes of parents as children get older (Meidenbauer et al., 2019).

This work has applications for folks that aren't researchers and urban planners. If you already self-identify as a nature lover and avid visitor of parks, congratulations! You're likely to be experiencing many of the positive mental and physical health outcomes of nature exposure.

The next time you go for a hike or visit a local park, it might be worth inviting a reluctant friend along–it could be the first step towards increasing their connection to nature and improving their well-being.