The biophilia hypothesis (also called BET) suggests that humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life.
[3] Wilson uses the term in a related sense when he suggests that biophilia describes "the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life."
He proposed the possibility that the deep affiliations humans have with other life forms and nature as a whole are rooted in our biology.
[8] Human preferences toward things in nature, while refined through experience and culture, are hypothetically the product of biological evolution.
Similarly, the hypothesis helps explain why ordinary people care for and sometimes risk their lives to save domestic and wild animals, and keep plants and flowers in and around their homes.
In the book Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations edited by Peter Kahn and Stephen Kellert,[9] the importance of animals, especially those with which a child can develop a nurturing relationship, is emphasized particularly for early and middle childhood.
[16] Native Americans' and Aboriginal Australians' controlled burn practices have shaped landscapes and biodiversity in North America and Australia for millennia.
These beliefs generally viewing nature as sacred, with specific sites, species, or phenomena holding deep significance.
[21] Caperna and Serafini[22] define biophilic design as that kind of architecture, which is able to supply our inborn need of connection to life and to the vital processes.
[27] Examples of this being studied in medical settings include having a window looking out to see living plants is also shown to help speed up the healing process of patients in hospitals.
The concern for a lack of connection with the rest of nature outside of us, is that a stronger disregard for other plants, animals and less appealing wild areas could lead to further ecosystem degradation and species loss.