Strolling in a forest, tending a garden or simply looking at green hills are experiences many find restorative. That affinity is called biophilia. At the opposite end is biophobia — an aversion or fear of nature, traditionally used for fear of predators or of spiders, snakes and other dangerous creatures. Lately, however, researchers are seeing a broader, growing form of biophobia: a general distancing from and discomfort with the natural world.
A team at Lund University reviewed almost 200 studies on human–nature relationships and concluded that our bond with nature appears to be weakening. Johan Kjellberg Jensen, who led the overview, links this deterioration to urbanization. With most of the world’s population now living in cities, future generations may be at increased risk of growing up unfamiliar with nature and more prone to biophobia.
Psychologist Dirk Stemper notes that scientists have observed this alienation from nature since the late 1970s, especially in industrialized countries. Many children today grow up in tightly sealed, non-natural environments, spending most of their time indoors or in digital spaces. They lack the physical and sensory experiences — climbing, getting dirty, observing animals — that build familiarity and comfort with the outdoors.
Familiarity matters. Psychologist Lea Dohm stresses that feeling connected to nature encourages people to support environmental and climate protection. Negative attitudes toward soil, earthworms or mud can be transmitted across generations: parents who portray nature as dirty or dangerous often influence their children to avoid it, creating a downward spiral of detachment. Repeated warnings — “watch out for ticks,” “don’t touch that” — can teach children to see nature primarily as a place of risk.
Environmental educator Susanne Sigl sees these patterns in her work at Querwaldein, an organization in Cologne that helps children develop positive relationships with nature. She describes children who hesitate to touch twigs, pinecones or harmless insects, sometimes using handkerchiefs to pick things up or avoiding contact entirely. The Lund University review also found that fear of nature can harden into outright hostility: biophobia has been linked to support for killing certain predators, such as bears, wolves or sharks.
Culture and storytelling shape how we view the outdoors. In Central Europe, forests were long portrayed as dangerous — full of wild animals, hunger, predators and supernatural threats — until the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries reframed woodlands as places of longing. Today, Stemper argues, a new form of fear is returning, driven not by predators but by alienation, media framing and digital distraction. Digital representations of nature — highly edited Instagram feeds, virtual landscapes in games — can create a “hyperreality” that feels more immediate or appealing than actual encounters with meadows, forests or animals, further weakening people’s motivation to seek real-world contact.
This shrinking of real-life nature contact has health consequences. Spending time outdoors is good for mental health: nature alleviates symptoms of ADHD, improves attention and concentration, reduces sensory problems, and helps emotional regulation. People who avoid nature because of biophobia miss those benefits.
So how can people reconnect? Jensen suggests knowledge as a remedy: learning about plants, animals and ecological processes helps people appreciate nature and distinguish real risks from manageable ones. If fears are justified (for example, protecting livestock from predators), targeted measures can reduce conflict and fear.
Sigl emphasizes play and hands-on experience, especially for children. Playful activities in natural settings — running, climbing, falling and getting up again — diminish hesitancy and increase comfort with textures, smells and creatures. Practical, supervised experiences with plants, insects and soil can replace fear with curiosity. Environmental education programs that combine free play, guided exploration and factual knowledge offer a promising path to rebuild everyday contact with nature and the stewardship that often follows.