Developmental Psychology and the Biophilia Hypothesis: Children’s Affiliation with Nature

Biophilia suggests that humans are born with a natural tendency to connect with other living things—plants, animals, and the natural world more broadly. This idea, was popularized by scholars like E.O. Wilson and Stephen Kellert, has been gaining support, but it also raises important questions.

This article takes a close look at the biophilia idea and highlights three big issues. First, it asks whether this connection to nature is truly built into our genetics. Second, it considers how to make sense of some people’s negative reactions to nature—such as fear or dislike of certain animals. Third, it examines the strength of the evidence so far and asks whether the biophilia idea can actually be tested and challenged, as any good scientific theory should be.

Through this critical review, biophilia comes across as a promising way to investigate the human affiliation with nature. At the same time, the framework is still young and needs more careful development, especially when it comes to understanding how this relationship unfolds over the course of a person’s life.

To move the field forward, the second half of the paper lays out a developmental approach that looks at how children’s thinking about nature changes as they grow. This approach is supported with examples from the author’s own research on children’s environmental values and reasoning, based on studies conducted both in the United States and in the Brazilian Amazon. Together, these studies help shed light on how our connection to nature may begin, deepen, or change over time.