A STUDY AT the University of Bournemouth has found that people who love to fly abroad on holidays may be suffering from a behavioural addiction.
The researchers questioned a number of ”largely well-educated professionals” who represented an “extremely aeromobile” section of the broader populations of the UK and Norway, where the research was carried out.
The people surveyed were identified as suffering from a sort of ’fliers guilt’, which meant that while they enjoyed the activity of flying and travelling, they felt bad about the impact it was having on the environment and climate change.
The scientists deduced that when feelings of guilt, suppression and denial are taken into account, along with the difficulty in changing the way people now use air travel and the ease of traveling on a budget, that frequent holiday air travel is now a behavioural addiction.
The paper identifies an increasing backlash against s0-called ‘binge flying’, and says that if this negativity continues, then “frequent air travel may then join gambling, smoking, shopping, video games and internet use, amongst others, as ‘pathologised’ sites of behavioural addiction”.
Earlier this year the founder of Rough Guides Mark Ellingham said that he believed that our addiction to binge flying is killing the planet, and called for education for travellers about the damage their holidays do to the environment, according to The Guardian.
The Bournemouth researchers also suggest that one day airlines may have to issue the warning:
Danger: Air travel damages the planet’s health.
