Environmental resource theory: An integrative perspective on human habitat preferences and emotional responses to the environment

Although modern humans occupy many habitats, human habitat preferences are relatively specific. We tend to prefer environments containing resources and avoid barren environments. Much research has focused on comparing emotional, motivational, and cognitive responses to urban and natural environments, which may be a false dichotomy. Considering environmental resources explicitly, the present article argues that resource content and resource exploitability are evolutionary relevant aspects of any environment. Findings from studies on environmental preferences and responses to urban and natural environments are reinterpreted in terms of environmental resource theory. The dynamics of moving from low to high resource environments can explain most findings within this area of research and environmental resource theory offers a different perspective on affective and cognitive restoration in nature. The relevance for climate change and environmental degradation is discussed. • Reviews currently favoured and established views on habitat preferences and emotional responses to the physical environment. • Presents a new theory in which the exploitability of available environmental resources is highlighted. • Low resource environments may facilitate threat detection in a way that high resource environments do not. • Environmental resources are defined in relation to the fitness of the individual exploiting the environment. • Niche construction is connected to place attachment, by arguing that maintaining a relationship with the environment is crucial for modifying the niche.