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Plants Promoting Happiness : The Affective Influences of Plants on Human Emotion Kamran, Manal; Kwong, Billy; Oshimi, Yuka; van der Velde, Natasha; Yao, Si Jia

Abstract

Biophilia is the phenomenon that human interaction with nature can increase their positive affect. In an ever-growing world of urbanization that is dominated by man-made structures, greenery and natural elements are slowly being erased from our visual canvas. The present study sought to discover whether adding plants to the floor of an urban building, specifically the CIRS building in UBC, can arouse the effects of biophilia and increase feelings of happiness and decrease feelings of sadness within the building’s patrons. Participants of the study were asked to fill out a Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) survey under the control condition, where no plants were introduced to the interior of the building, and the plant condition, where we introduced plants to a floor of the building. The results indicated that the introduction of plants into the CIRS building did little to nothing to increase their feelings of happiness or to decrease their feelings of sadness, a finding that is inconsistent with the biophilia phenomenon and to previous research that studied its effects. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Item Metadata

Title
Plants Promoting Happiness : The Affective Influences of Plants on Human Emotion
Creator
Kamran, Manal; Kwong, Billy; Oshimi, Yuka; van der Velde, Natasha; Yao, Si Jia
Contributor
University of British Columbia. Sustainability Office; University of British Columbia. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability
Date Issued
2018-04-05
Description
Biophilia is the phenomenon that human interaction with nature can increase their positive affect. In an ever-growing world of urbanization that is dominated by man-made structures, greenery and natural elements are slowly being erased from our visual canvas. The present study sought to discover whether adding plants to the floor of an urban building, specifically the CIRS building in UBC, can arouse the effects of biophilia and increase feelings of happiness and decrease feelings of sadness within the building’s patrons. Participants of the study were asked to fill out a Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) survey under the control condition, where no plants were introduced to the interior of the building, and the plant condition, where we introduced plants to a floor of the building. The results indicated that the introduction of plants into the CIRS building did little to nothing to increase their feelings of happiness or to decrease their feelings of sadness, a finding that is inconsistent with the biophilia phenomenon and to previous research that studied its effects. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”
Subject
Wellbeing; Buildings
Genre
Report
Type
Text
Language
eng
Series
UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report; University of British Columbia. PSYC 321
Date Available
2018-11-27
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0374279
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/67899
Affiliation
Arts, Faculty of; Psychology, Department of
Campus
UBCV
Peer Review Status
Unreviewed
Scholarly Level
Undergraduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International