Is all nature equal? Evaluating the role of familiarity in emotional responses to nature

People's attachment to nature has important relevance to the understanding of nature’s influence on mental health, but in terms of impact, is all nature equal? This study seeks to understand the affective responses of exposure to images of nature across geographically-diverse university student populations. Familiarity with certain kinds of scenery may help people to feel more positively about them and, in some cases, even prefer them. Understanding these preferences is one way to help people to cope with the current and future crises. In choosing appropriate designs, it is important for design professionals to understand the extent to which nature scenes, whether photographs, murals on buildings, paintings, landscape design elements, or some other form, elicit affective responses.