Abstract
The higher the level of trait Engagement with Natural Beauty (EnB), the more one loves all humanity; and also loves their friends, family, and romantic partners more. The Kaplans found that we are most strongly attracted to natural scenes that are coherent, with repeated scenery that is somewhat uniform, but at the same time complex (rich with diversity) and that also have mystery. Unity-in-diversity + mystery = beauty. EnB indirectly influences proenvironmental behavior through feeling connected to nature. EnB may cause generosity and trust indirectly through the effect of positive emotions. EnB may also make us better human beings because it is positively related to such transcendent traits as gratitude, spiritual transcendence, and awe; and negatively related to materialism. EnB may influence levels of caring, moral identity, fairness and justice; and it is related to universalism, spirituality, and benevolence. EnB makes us smarter through relieving attentional fatigue, increasing concentration, and being open-minded. EnB makes us happier; and it may increase our emotional well-being, social well-being, psychological well-being, and sense of meaning in life. The annual 30 Days Wild campaign in the UK has shown increases in participants’ health, happiness, proenvironmental behaviors, and EnB itself.
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- 1.
I don’t mean to leave all the other creatures out, I’m just focusing here on one of the creatures (homo sapiens) that is near and dear to my heart. The planet is, of course, an ecological whole. I do plan to offer copies of this book, at the author’s discount, to any humpback whale that wants a copy, but I have a feeling it will be mostly humans that read it.
- 2.
r is the statistical abbreviation for correlation (0.10–0.29 is a small correlation; 0.30–0.49 is medium; 0.50 or higher is a large correlation); p is the abbreviation for probability—the smaller the number, the more statistically significant the correlation is.
- 3.
Various researchers have given a variety of initials to stand for the Engagement with Beauty Scale’s natural beauty subscale. Rico Pohling and I have usually used EnB; but other writers have used EWNB (Engagement With Natural Beauty) and PNB (Perceived Natural Beauty).
- 4.
“Dame” is the honorific title you receive when the Queen of England knights you, and you are a woman. Sort of. She is also the Master [sic] of Emmanuel College at Cambridge University.
- 5.
I am using the words “Liberal ” and “Conservative” in the way of American English: liberals are the left and conservatives are the right.
- 6.
We need to be morally and spiritually cautious about the notion of self-esteem. Self-esteem can be a good thing if it means self-respect, honoring your DNA’s gifts or your soul. But self-esteem can be a dangerous thing if it means thinking too much about yourself, with possible narcissism and ego involved. In fact, having high self-esteem can lead to violence when the esteem is threatened (Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996).
- 7.
APA style requires using “et al.” if there are so many authors, but they have such aesthetically cool names, I wanted to write them out: Colin A. Capaldi, Holli-Anne Passmore, Ryo Ishii, Ksenia A. Chistopolskaya, Jonte Vowinckel, Evgeni L. Nikolaev, and Gennady I. Semikin.
- 8.
A correlation of 0.15 only explains 2% of the variance among scores of participants on the measures of EnB and SWL.
- 9.
Lumber , Richardson, and Sheffield (2017) considered all three activities as involving the pathway of beauty, and thus hyphenated them emotion-beauty, meaning-beauty, and compassion-beauty, because “beauty was also present through the focussing of attention to the visual aesthetics of nature” (p. 16).
- 10.
In December 2018.
- 11.
The year 2006 wasn’t very long ago. Why weren’t psychologists studying appreciation of natural beauty before that? Actually they were, they just didn’t use the phrase “natural beauty.” For example, the Kaplans used the word “attractiveness ” (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989).
- 12.
It was a small study (N = 61), however, so maybe we should not generalize from it.
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Beauty Interlude Four
Beauty Interlude Four
Consummation and Warning
At the last interlude, we left Psyche afraid of the noises in her bedroom, although it was a “gentle sound” (Kenney, 1990, p. 53). After the bath, banquet, and choir, Psyche had gone to her bed. The noises turn out to be Eros entering the bedroom through the window casement. She somehow knows this is her “unknown husband” (p. 53) and they consummate their relationship. Eros continues to visit her every night under cover of darkness. She knows him by his touch and his voice, but she never “sees” him. He warns her that she should not gaze upon him (Fig. 5.4).
“Amor Kommend” Etching and Aquatint 1880 Max Klinger 1857 (Leipzig)—1920 (Naumburg). (Photo by Rhett Diessner; Etching in author’s collection)
Psyche’s parents miss her very much; her sisters are very sad and go to the mountaintop from where she disappeared and cry loudly. Eros warns Psyche not to listen to her sisters’ lamentations, and tells her that if she pays attention to them, it will bring “heavy grief” to him and “sheer destruction” to her (p. 55). But Psyche kisses him over and over and begs for the sisters to be allowed to visit, and Eros gives in and says he will allow Zephyr to bring them to the wondrous palace.
The sisters arrive and they have a happy reunion with the sister they thought deceased. But when the sisters see Psyche’s deep happiness, and the awesome value of the palace and its decorations, “deep in their hearts” (p. 59) a deadly sin begins to stir …. [can you guess which one? To be continued ….]
Commentary
In the great variety of paintings and sculptures of Eros, for the last several millennia, he is depicted as either a beautiful, virile young man or as a pudgy, weak child. In the Psyche and Eros myth, he is most definitely portrayed as the virile young man. Existentialist philosopher-psychologist Rollo May (1969, 1985) has explained that the young man Eros embodies a psychologically healthy approach to love and sex. In contrast, the weak, pudgy child signifies a cultural deterioration of love into something banal and insipid; and shows fear and denial of the beauty of adult intimacy.
Many psychologists have varied interpretations of Eros forbidding Psyche to gaze upon him (Bettelheim, 1977; Diessner, 2007; Diessner & Burke, 2011; Downing, 1988; Gilligan, 2002, 2004; Gollnick, 1992; Houston, 1987; Johnson, 1976; Labouvie-Vief, 1994; Von Franz, 1992). I like the simplest explanation. Eros is as beautiful as a Greek god; wait a minute … he is a Greek god! He wants to be loved for his moral beauty—for his character strengths and personality—and not simply for his outer form, not just his physical beauty. I can totally relate—I’ve had that problem my whole life.
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Diessner, R. (2019). Noticing Nature’s Beauty: The Trait of Engagement with Natural Beauty. In: Understanding the Beauty Appreciation Trait. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32333-2_5
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