I would agree with the body of this post to an extent, but the main problem is that nearly every instance of the heuristic I see actually in use are in situations where it is inapplicable.
Examples:
Expecting small fragments of natural systems to be better in an artificial environment such as plants in enclosed office spaces. There are benefits from some plants in general, but a few can produce unnaturally high concentrations of allergens or toxic insecticidal chemicals in such cases, in close proximity to people sharing the same space for an unnaturally large fraction of every day.
Applying “natural is better” to cases like medicine where typical natural outcomes are to die or suffer lasting injury.
Continuing to treat some substances as “natural” when they have been artificially processed and concentrated to an extent that never occurs in nature (such as herbal essences).
With that in mind I think that it is a heuristic that is heavily overused, and should be treated with extreme suspicion.
I would agree with the body of this post to an extent, but the main problem is that nearly every instance of the heuristic I see actually in use are in situations where it is inapplicable.
Examples:
Expecting small fragments of natural systems to be better in an artificial environment such as plants in enclosed office spaces. There are benefits from some plants in general, but a few can produce unnaturally high concentrations of allergens or toxic insecticidal chemicals in such cases, in close proximity to people sharing the same space for an unnaturally large fraction of every day.
Applying “natural is better” to cases like medicine where typical natural outcomes are to die or suffer lasting injury.
Continuing to treat some substances as “natural” when they have been artificially processed and concentrated to an extent that never occurs in nature (such as herbal essences).
With that in mind I think that it is a heuristic that is heavily overused, and should be treated with extreme suspicion.