Time in Nature Makes Children More Caring

Time with Nature

New research from psychologists Netta Weinstein, Andrew Przybylski, and Richard Ryan at the University of Rochester suggests that when exposed to nature people are more inclined to be caring.  They are more willing to share and do good in the world.  The mechanism behind this effect is not entirely clear, but there’s simply something special to being outside, to having personal experiences of natural beauty and wonder.  When you think about it, we all are drawn toward nature and it does improve our mood, calm us down, and generally restore us as human beings.  Study after study supports this.

Here again, we’re finding that every child benefits from time outdoors and in contact with the natural world, and of course, camp is probably the best way to get a good solid dose of it.  So for us, we’d say time at camp helps children be more caring as well.

Learn more by watching this video interview of Richard Ryan discussing the research.

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  1. Avatar for Orange County Summer Camps
    Orange County Summer Camps
    14 years ago

    I definitely agree that exposure to outdoors is a huge catalyst to getting people to care about the environment and honestly, to just be a better person in general

  2. Avatar for ngnoble
    ngnoble
    14 years ago

    I agree people do care when they been around it and seen it’s beauty.

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