Nature Sounds for Stress Recovery and Healthy Eating: A Lab Experiment Differentiating Water and Bird Sound

Abstract

This lab-based study tested whether nature sounds can lead to less stress reactivity, better stress recovery, less stress-induced eating and healthy food choice stimulation, while differentiating between bird and water sounds. Before (5 min) and after (8 min) the Trier Social Stress Test, 59 participants (47% men, 18–30 years) were exposed to one of three soundtracks: birds, streaming water, or wind as control. Group differences were tested on negative affect, salivary cortisol, heart rate variability, hunger, food craving, snack intake and influence expectations. Both bird and water sounds led to better cortisol recovery (not reactivity) and were reported to be more stress-reducing than wind only. The recovery effect was highest for water sounds. No differential sound effects were found for the food variables. The results confirm the potential implementation of bird and water sounds for stress restoration but future research should test the effects (especially on diet) in real-life settings.

Neighborhood Aesthetics, Neighborhood-based physical activity, Chronic Stress, and obesity in school Children

“…In this line, Todorova et al [118] showed that salivary cortisol levels were signi cantly lower in a forest group intervention compared with one urban group. Other experimental studies show that nature sounds (birds and water sounds) [115] and gardening [114] are more bene cial for cortisol recovery. Some preliminary research suggests that living in greener neighborhoods may be associated with lower chronic stress, as analyzed by HCC in adults [86,119].…”

“…Antecedent research on neuroendocrine restoration [114,115] provides some promissory evidence on the alternative pathways of the links between the neighborhood aesthetics restorative qualities and its stressrecovery in uence on chronic stress. Field experiments show that walking or staying in green spaces improves mood and reduces salivary cortisol levels [116,117].…”

“…Given the above background, the following question arises: Can the neuro-endocrine response related to exposure to neighborhood aesthetics and restorative qualities and children's physical activity be re ected in the development of obesity in children? In addition to the effects of restorative environments on stress recovery [85], positive experiences from restorative environments might also be applied to new health outcomes involved with the dietary domain and eating behavior [115]. Chronic stress has been identi ed as a potential underlying mechanism associated with obesity because it may lead to hyperphagia [42].…”

The Magic Impacts of Sounds on Consumer’s Brain: How Do Natural Sounds Nudge Green Product Purchase?

“…Firstly, upon reviewing the previous studies (see Table 1), we discovered that the majority of them are focused on the influence of natural sounds on food consumption. These consumption metrics encompass the willingness to buy for organic and environmentally friendly foods (Spendrup et al, 2016), the perception of food flavors (Lin et al, 2019; Lin et al, 2022a; 2022b; Xu et al, 2019), the choice between healthy and unhealthy foods (Peng-Li et al, 2021), the liking and wanting of different flavors of healthy and unhealthy foods (Peng-Li et al, 2022), as well as the craving and intake of healthy and unhealthy foods (Michels & Hamers, 2023). However, it remains unknown whether natural sounds would influence the actual purchasing decisions of green products beyond the food category.…”

“…Secondly, previous research has found that natural sounds have an impact on various psychological and physiological metrics (see Table 1). These metrics include connectedness to nature (Spendrup et al, 2016), affective or emotional responses (Lin et al, 2019; Xu et al, 2019; Lin et al, 2022a; 2022b; Michels & Hamers, 2023), visual attention (Peng-li et al, 2021), heart rate (Xu et al, 2019), and more. According to attention restoration theory (Kaplan, 1995), natural sounds can mitigate the depletion of people’s attentional resources.…”