ABSTRACT
This chapter overviews of human emotional responses to nature with negative responses—biophobia—because its experimental underpinnings are stronger than those for positive responses. It examines some important components of human behavioral ecology from an evolutionary perspective. It concentrates on habitat selection because a rich body of research exists on this topic and because it has been the focus of most of my own research efforts. Time does not permit me to delve into such fascinating and equally important topics as selection of food and mates. The chapter explores why we have been so reluctant to extend evolutionary thinking to human behavioral ecology, It discusses some broader implications of studies of evolved human responses to nature. Habitat selection has served as a perspective for a number of studies on human responses to landscape features. A functional-evolutionary approach to human emotions has been useful in a number of fields.
