Flourishing or Frightening? Feelings about Natural and Built Green Spaces in Singapore

Denise Dillon (), Sean T. H. Lee and Eunice W. L. Tai
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Denise Dillon: School of Social and Health Sciences, James Cook University, Singapore 387380, Singapore
Sean T. H. Lee: School of Social and Health Sciences, James Cook University, Singapore 387380, Singapore
Eunice W. L. Tai: College of Healthcare Sciences, James Cook University, Douglas 4811, Australia

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: The current study’s aim was to better understand people’s feelings towards different types of natural and built green space environments in the highly urbanized “garden city” of Singapore. We examined which types of green spaces elicited positive (eudemonic) or negative (apprehensive) affective responses. A total of 288 adult residents of Singapore completed a survey that asked them to report their affective states in response to images of 10 locally different environment types and to complete measures of childhood location, frequency of visiting natural/built environments, nature connectedness, and dispositional anxiety, as well as demographic items on age and gender. The 10 green space environment types were mapped onto an experiential state space representing feelings of apprehension and eudemonia in response to specific types of urban green spaces. In terms of a biophilic response, feelings of eudemonia were no different in natural green spaces compared to built green spaces. A higher frequency of experience in specific environments is associated with enhanced feelings of eudemonia in these environments. The findings indicate that people in Singapore can be apprehensive as much in natural green spaces as in built green spaces, and they can also find eudemonic experiences in built green spaces such as roof-top gardens or town parks.

Keywords: experiential feeling states; eudemonia and apprehension; types of green spaces (natural or built); frequency of experience; nature connectedness; trait anxiety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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