Visitors to urban greenspace have higher sentiment and lower negativity on Twitter

Abstract

With more people living in cities, we are witnessing a decline in exposure to nature. A growing body of research has demonstrated an association between nature contact and improved mood. Here, we used Twitter and the Hedonometer, a world analysis tool, to investigate how sentiment, or the estimated happiness of the words people write, varied before, during, and after visits to San Francisco's urban park system. We found that sentiment was substantially higher during park visits and remained elevated for several hours following the visit. Leveraging differences in vegetative cover across park types, we explored how different types of outdoor public spaces may contribute to subjective well‐being. Tweets during visits to Regional Parks, which are greener and have greater vegetative cover, exhibited larger increases in sentiment than tweets during visits to Civic Plazas and Squares. Finally, we analysed word frequencies to explore several mechanisms theorized to link nature exposure with mental and cognitive benefits. Negation words such as ‘no’, ‘not’, and ‘don't’ decreased in frequency during visits to urban parks. These results can be used by urban planners and public health officials to better target nature contact recommendations for growing urban populations. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

The affective benefits of nature exposure: What's nature got to do with it?

“…Implementing beautiful UGI would be a more feasible way to improve the aesthetic value of currently developed spaces. In addition, nature exposure is associated with improved attentional resources (Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan, 2008;, improved mental health (Bratman et al, 2019), positive thinking (Schertz et al, 2018;and Schwartz et al, 2019), reduced crime (Kuo & Sullivan, 2001a, 2001b and greater neighborhood social cohesion (de Vries, van Dillen, Groenewegen, & Spreeuwenberg, 2013;Kuo, Sullivan, Coley, & Brunson, 1998).…”

“…Implementing beautiful UGI would be a more feasible way to improve the aesthetic value of currently developed spaces. In addition, nature exposure is associated with improved attentional resources ( Berman et al, 2008 ; Schertz & Berman, 2019 ), improved mental health ( Bratman et al, 2019 ), positive thinking ( Schertz et al, 2018 ; and Schwartz, Dodds, O’Neil-Dunne, Danforth, & Ricketts, 2019 ), reduced crime (, 2001b; SchertzKuo & Sullivan, 2001a et al, 2019) and greater neighborhood social cohesion ( de Vries, van Dillen, Groenewegen, & Spreeuwenberg, 2013 ; Kuo, Sullivan, Coley, & Brunson, 1998 ). Therefore, it is likely that the benefits obtained from this urban green infrastructure would not be limited to residents’ emotional functioning.…”

COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown as a “Global Human Confinement Experiment” to investigate biodiversity conservation

“…Increased human usage in areas adjacent to urban centers, that have not typically been in the spotlight of previous conservation efforts, may inspire novel strategies to re-wild suburban land and marine ecosystems and enhance the exposure of urban populations to healthier ecosystems. This is much needed to increase appreciation for nature (Schwartz et al, 2019) and to counteract the increasing 'nature deficit disorder' in which people lose contact with the natural world and adopt a pessimistic outlook on biological conservation (Louv, 2011). Moreover, studies in the field of conservation psychology, which focuses on reciprocal relationships between human and nature to encourage conservation actions (Saunders, 2003), may identify specific changes in how humans conceptualize conservation-related issues before and after the lockdown, such as trade in wild animals and the value of having nearby parks.…”

The Relationship Between Green Space and Prosocial Behaviour Among Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

“…Zhang et al (2014) reported that positive emotions mediate the association between exposures to greenery perceived as beautiful and prosocial behaviour among adults. Positive emotional states due to exposures to nature can lead to greater prosocial tendencies by changing from an individual to collective mental frame (Schwartz et al, 2019). In addition, Goldy and Piff (2020) argued that contact with natural environment can increase attention to others and enhance prosocial behaviour through psychological processes of positive feelings that include feelings of awe and perception of beauty.…”