Beyond “bluespace” and “greenspace”: A narrative review of possible health benefits from exposure to other natural landscapes

Li, Hansen; Browning, Matthew H.E.M.; Rigolon, Alessandro; Larson, Lincoln R.; Taff, Derrick; Labib, S.M.; Benfield, Jacob A.; Yuan, Shuai; McAnirlin, Olivia; Hatami, Nazanin; Kahn, Peter H.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159292

Cited by 48 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 144 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…One study suggests that an outdoor environment characterized by liquid water (i.e., a river) can enhance subjective vitality 19 but studies on virtual blue spaces are needed. Second, results on the virtual arctic environment are scarce and have not tested its specific characteristics in comparison to other environments 11 , though it was recently suggested that environments characterized by solid water, such as arctic ones, may increase restoration through fascination and the experience of being away 20 . Restorativeness is associated with subjective vitality 21,22 and is presumably one of its antecedents 23 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion regulation and virtual nature: cognitive reappraisal as an individual-level moderator for impacts on subjective vitality

Theodorou

Spano

Bratman

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

People who make habitual use of an emotion regulation strategy such as cognitive reappraisal may be more sensitive to the emotion cues coming from a surrounding natural environment and, thus, get more benefits from virtual nature exposure such as enhanced subjective vitality. However, no previous study investigated the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal in the relationship between exposure to different types of natural environments (a national park, a lacustrine environment, and an arctic environment vs. an urban environment) and subjective vitality. We designed a between-subject design (four conditions, one per type of environment) with a sample of 187 university students (Mage = 21.17, SD = 2.55). Participants were exposed to four 360° panoramic photos of the environment for one minute each with a virtual reality head-mounted display. The results of a multicategorical moderation analysis attested that there were two significant interactions, respectively between lacustrine and arctic environments and cognitive reappraisal. More specifically, for participants with low levels of habitual use of cognitive reappraisal, the effects of virtual nature (vs. urban) exposure on subjective vitality were not significant, while for participants with high levels, the effects were significant and positive. Findings show how the potential of virtual nature may be boosted with training aimed at increasing the general use of cognitive reappraisal, supports enhancing the applications of virtual nature, and demonstrates the need to take individual differences into account when determining the benefits of these applications.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion regulation and virtual nature: cognitive reappraisal as an individual-level moderator for impacts on subjective vitality

Theodorou

Spano

Bratman

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A pilot study tested 58 possible natural landscapes with nine UIUC graduate students and faculty members familiar with VR research. We defined “natural landscapes” as environments abundant in features (i.e., plants, water, rocks, and minerals) with little or no apparent evidence of human presence or intervention, in alignment with previous reviews on the health benefits of nature exposure 68 , 69 . These participants watched 360-degree videos created by INVIROVR, including forests, beaches, deserts, lakes, grasslands, and alpine areas.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A subsequent study with 95 participants was conducted with six 4-min 360-degree videos using a subsample of the above landscapes 40 . The locations spanned from Costa Rica, the northern United States (i.e., Upper Peninsula of Michigan), to the Rocky Mountain West (i.e., Colorado and New Mexico) and constituted a mixture of the three major components of natural landscapes–plants, water, and rocks/minerals–with high amounts of plant biomass, which has been shown to increase the beneficial effects of VR exposure 68 , 70 . Most videos included four scenes presented for 1-min each with a 3-s crossfade between scenes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Daily exposure to virtual nature reduces symptoms of anxiety in college students

Browning

Shin

Drong

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Exposure to natural environments offers an array of mental health benefits. Virtual reality provides simulated experiences of being in nature when outdoor access is limited. Previous studies on virtual nature have focused mainly on single "doses" of virtual nature. The effects of repeated exposure remain poorly understood. Motivated by this gap, we studied the influence of a daily virtual nature intervention on symptoms of anxiety, depression, and an underlying cause of poor mental health: rumination. Forty college students (58% non-Hispanic White, median age = 19) were recruited from two U.S. universities and randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Over several weeks, anxious arousal (panic) and anxious apprehension (worry) decreased with virtual nature exposure. Participants identifying as women, past VR users, experienced with the outdoors, and engaged with the beauty in nature benefited particularly strongly from virtual nature. Virtual nature did not help symptoms of anhedonic depression or rumination. Further research is necessary to distinguish when and for whom virtual nature interventions impact mental health outcomes.

show abstract

“…While our experiment provided six groups of experience, the virtual landscape types were binary between nature or urban scenes. In addition, the internet provides an endless variety of natural virtual landscape scenes, including national parks, forests, blue spaces, caves, deserts, and polar areas (Li et al 2022;Yin et al 2022). Furthermore, design features of urban parks should be used and considered whether it might factor into stress recover.…”

Section: Future Research Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Durations of virtual exposure to built and natural landscapes impact self-reported stress recovery: evidence from three countries

Suppakittpaisarn

Tung

et al. 2022

Landscape Ecol Eng

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Exposure to natural landscapes can benefit human health. However, several knowledge gaps remain regarding the impacts of duration and cultural differences on the health benefits of nature. If these gaps are filled, designers and planners can better design landscapes for stress recovery. This study examined the effects of durations of virtual exposure to the built and natural environments across three countries using an experimental design. Two-hundred and seventy people from USA, Taiwan, and Thailand were induced with an acute stressor and then randomly assigned to watch 360° videos of urban or natural landscapes for 1, 5, or 15 min. Self-reported stress recovery data were collected before and after the exposure. The results suggested that gender and duration of exposure to virtual natural landscapes impacted stress recovery. Female participants recovered from stress more when exposed to the virtual natural landscapes than urban landscapes. Among those participants who were exposed to virtual natural landscapes, 5 min of exposure resulted in greater stress recovery than shorter or longer durations of exposure. Perceived familiarity did not influence the extent of stress recovery. These findings support previous research on how nature exposure is related to stress recovery and varies by dosage, leading to better understanding toward landscape design. Future studies should explore other measures of stress, different landscape designs, participants’ immersion, and levels of control in simulated nature scenes.

show abstract

Beyond “bluespace” and “greenspace”: A narrative review of possible health benefits from exposure to other natural landscapes

Cited by 48 publications

References 144 publications

Emotion regulation and virtual nature: cognitive reappraisal as an individual-level moderator for impacts on subjective vitality

Emotion regulation and virtual nature: cognitive reappraisal as an individual-level moderator for impacts on subjective vitality

Daily exposure to virtual nature reduces symptoms of anxiety in college students

Durations of virtual exposure to built and natural landscapes impact self-reported stress recovery: evidence from three countries

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About