The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our economy, social lives, and mental health, and it therefore provides a unique chance for researchers to examine how people cope with changes to their everyday activities. Research suggests that people may be spending more time in nature than they did pre-pandemic. The current study sheds light on how nature is being used to cope with the stresses of the global health crisis and lockdowns. Canadian undergraduate students (N = 559) filled out a questionnaire during the fall of 2020 about their pandemic experience, including their affects, life satisfaction, and feelings of flourishing and vitality, in addition to a wide variety of nature variables. The weekly exposures, the perceived increases or decreases in the exposure to nature during the pandemic, and the feelings of connectedness (nature relatedness) were assessed. Those who felt like they were spending more time in nature than they did pre-pandemic experienced more subjective well-being. Nature-related individuals were more likely to access nature and to appreciate it more during the pandemic than others, but all people (even those less connected) experienced well-being benefits from spending more time in nature. Going into nature appears to be an increasingly popular and effective coping strategy to boost or maintain subjective well-being during the pandemic.

Nature exposure in the form of immersion in natural environments can benefit students in multiple ways. Across four studies, we examined whether nature exposure in the form of visual nature cues on instructional materials might increase academic motivation and engagement among university students. Visual nature cues were presented via PowerPoint backgrounds (Study 1), online Zoom lecture backgrounds (Study 2), and on the background of calendars people used to plan for an upcoming assignment or exam (Studies 3 and 4). In each study and an internal meta-analysis, we found no evidence that nature cues increased academic engagement or motivation compared to other background images. However, participants’ self-reported nature relatedness was linked to greater academic engagement and motivation in each study and the internal meta-analysis. The interaction between nature relatedness and nature exposure was not significant. We conclude that embedding visual nature cues in educational material is not sufficiently impactful to have an effect on academic motivation and that immersion and interaction with nature in a fuller sense may be necessary to reap motivational benefits.

Many scholars have suggested that people could improve their well-being by developing closer connections with nature, and that this would also promote the sustainable behaviors needed to address climate change. Research generally corroborates this idea, but few studies have examined the more specific hypothesis that positive emotions (caused by nature or otherwise) can directly influence pro-environmental behaviors. In particular, self-transcendent emotions such as awe, compassion, and gratitude can be prompted by nature, and they seem to foster pro-social behaviors. Most pro-environmental behaviors are also pro-social; they require cooperation and they benefit others. Some recent studies suggest that self-transcendent emotions can cause pro-environmental behavior, though results are mixed overall. We identify strategies for future research to resolve these inconclusive suggestions.

Objective: A recent meta-review of attentional bias research in eating disorders suggests that meta-analyses and systematic reviews include many low-quality and underpowered studies (Stott et al., 2021). As such, we examined whether published research examining the link between attentional bias, using the emotional Stroop task, and eating disorders among women with eating disorders has evidential value (ruling out selective reporting of a statistically significant effect) using a p-curve analysis. A p-curve analysis plots significant p-values onto a curve from .01to .05 to examine its distribution. We hypothesized that the p-curve would be flat, indicating no true effect. Method: The hypothesis, database search strategy, and data analytic approach were pre-registered. The inclusion criteria were reports that compared control and eating disorder groups, reported inferential statistics, and that used body shape/weight or general threat target words. Results: Fifty published reports were included in the p-curve analyses. Unexpectedly, the half and full p-curves were significantly right-skewed, indicating evidential value. However, the results were not robust to the exclusion of the seven lowest p-values and on average, reports were underpowered. There were also 18 reports with null results (they had a p-value greater than .05), which precluded their inclusion in the p-curve analyses. Discussion: The findings suggest that most of the evidence from research examining attentional biases using the emotional Stroop task among women with an eating disorder or with elevated eating disorder symptoms is underpowered and so should be interpreted with considerable caution.