Exposure to nature leads to a stronger natural-is-better bias in Chinese people

Over the past decade, a considerable body of research has focused on the physical, psychological, and cognitive benefits of nature exposure. In contrast, the current study unveils a potential downside of nature exposure: enhanced natural-is-better bias. We propose that interactions with nature increases connectedness to nature, which in turn leads to a stronger naturalness bias. In Study 1, we found that student participants recalling a past experience in nature were more likely to choose a natural (versus synthetic) drug than participants recalling a neutral experience. Employing a more diverse sample and a behavioral choice, Study 2 replicated the findings that reflecting on an experience in natural environments led to a stronger naturalness bias on drug choice than reflecting on a neutral experience. Study 3 investigated the effect of nature exposure on naturalness bias in a field setting. This study provided converging evidence that actual exposure to nature can influence drug preference in a behavioral context. A consistent result obtained from these three studies was that connectedness to nature played a mediating role in the relationship between nature exposure and naturalness bias. This research sheds new insight on the scalability of naturalness bias and its contributing factors.