Neighbourhood satisfaction,self-rated health,and psychological attributes: A multilevel analysis in Japan

Although earlier studies have demonstrated an association between neighbourhood perceptions and self-rated health, further study is needed regarding how this association is related to an individual's psychological attributes. Hence, we examined how self-rated health is associated with neighbourhood satisfaction after controlling for personality traits as well as other individual- and area-level covariates. We employed multilevel analysis using microdata collected from a nationwide Internet survey in Japan in 2011 (N = 8139). When controlling for personality traits, we observed that the odds for reporting poor health in response to neighbourhood dissatisfaction declined but remained highly significant. We obtained similar results when additionally controlling for sense of coherence (SOC) or replacing personality traits with it. We also found virtually no significant effect of personality traits or SOC on the sensitivity of self-rated health with neighbourhood dissatisfaction. Overall, this study indicated that the observed association between neighbourhood satisfaction and self-rated health tends to be overestimated, but cannot be fully explained by personality traits or SOC.     

Personality and environmental concern

People vary considerably in their attitudes toward environmental issues. Although some individuals view the environment from a purely utilitarian perspective, others are concerned about environmental sustainability and maintaining an ecological balance. The current study examines the relationship between personality characteristics and environmental concern in a community sample of 2690 German adults. Structural equation modeling revealed that greater environmental concern was related to higher levels of Agreeableness and Openness, with smaller positive relationships emerging with Neuroticism and Conscientiousness.     

Mobilizing Artists: Green Patriot Posters,Visual Metaphors,and Climate Change Activism

This essay examines the Canary Project's Green Patriot Posters campaign as activist art that collectively comments on the cultural coherence of our current relations to the environment, particularly in terms of global warming, sustainability, and the concept of linear economic growth. Aspiring to bring together artists under the eco-activist umbrella, the Canary Project relies on an old WWII-inspired frame with a narrow premise of that period's conservation efforts. Within this framework, a range of visual designs question, subvert, and promote continued economic growth and an ontology that “more” equals “better.” An analysis of the up–down orientational metaphors underscores a typology of these valuations and reveals one way to assess implications of such artistic efforts. That is, artistic expressions adapt and play with the contingent nature of metaphors, offering elaborations, extensions, and alternatives on basic structural elements and, hence, remark on how we orient ourselves and productively imagine being of/in the world anew.     

Taking the Romance out of Extraction: Contemporary Canadian Artists and the Subversion of the Romantic/Extractive Gaze

As in many nation-states, Canadian modernity viewed nature through two seemingly opposed gazes: the extractive and the romantic. In many ways, the Romantic movement was a response to the de-humanizing effects of industrial extraction, a process that summarily stripped the natural world of spirit and meaning. For many working within this representational tradition, however, the search for ontological meaning was a question of developing techniques and technologies that will allow us to “see” the spiritual qualities of nature, to see that it can also be mined, assayed, and sold as a spiritual resource that will provide us with metaphysical comfort in the cold and meaningless universe created by the extractive gaze. In this essay, we examine the work of four contemporary Canadian artists who deploy postmodernist strategies of citation and parody to reveal the hidden connection between Canadian landscape art and extractive processes. In so doing, their work seeks to destroy the comforting and familiar pleasures of the extractive and romantic gazes and force Canadians to develop new ways of thinking about our relationship to nature.     

Garden/Art: The Nature-Based Sculpture Program of the South Carolina Botanical Garden

This essay discusses an art program developed to engage viewers in environmental thought through unexpected experiences. Spread over 300 acres, the 15 nature-based sculptures of the South Carolina Botanical Garden (SCBG) are creative interventions developed with local natural materials to suit their separate unique sites. Since its inception in 1995, the SCBG's sculpture program has worked with artists of national and international prominence to create a world-renowned collection of nature-based site-specific sculptures. Placed in various terrains, without explanation, visitors to the garden experience the art outside of the more common context of gallery or museum space. The sculptures blur distinctions between nature and culture, as well as disrupt the presuppositions attached to public spaces, natural spaces, and artistic expression.     

Heritable and experiential effects on boldness in a tropical poeciliid

Consistent differences in human behaviour are often explained with reference to personality traits. Recent evidence suggests that similar traits are widespread across the entire animal kingdom and that they may have substantial fitness consequences. One of the major components of personality is the shyness–boldness continuum. Little is known about the relative contributions of genes and the environment in the development of boldness in wild animal populations. Here, we bred wild-caught fish (Brachyraphis episcopi) collected from regions of high- and low-predation pressure, reared their offspring in the laboratory under varying conditions and tested boldness utilising an open-field paradigm. First-generation laboratory-reared fish showed similar behaviour to their wild parents suggesting that boldness has a heritable component. In addition, repeated chasing with a net increased boldness in both high- and low-predation offspring, showing that boldness is also heavily influenced by life experiences. Differences between males and females were also sustained in the laboratory-reared generation indicating that sex differences in boldness are also heritable. We discuss these results with reference to the potential underlying genetic and hormonal mechanisms as well as the environmental influences that may be responsible for expression of boldness in wild animals.