All Humans All Prefer Savannas
What kind of biome is your favorite?
Do you prefer a rain forest? deciduous forest? desert? tundra?
If you are like the majority of humans worldwide, you would prefer "a parklike setting with short grass and scattered large trees." According to an experiment conducted by J.D. Balling and J. H. Falk, this landscape preference prevails worldwide. Humans everywhere possess a strong preference for the savanna. Even Nigerian subjects who have never travelled beyond the rain forest prefer savannas to their native biomes.
How can this be explained?
The authors conclude that human evolutionary history has a profound influence on far more than our physiology. This history is imprinted in our shared preferences for the landscape where humans emerged as a distinctive species hundreds of thousands of years ago. Genetically, we still feel most at home in the African savanna!