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Real Nature Reduces Stress06-17-08 | News

Real Nature Reduces Stress

Research done through the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Lab at the University of Washington showed that when people spent more time looking at a natural scene through a window, their heart rates tended to decrease. That was not the case with the plasma screen.

According to a new study that measured individuals’ heart recovery rate from minor stress when exposed to a natural scene, only real nature worked. The same scenes seen through a window, shown on a high-definition plasma screen, or just nothing but a blank wall were tested and the heart rate of people who looked at the scene through the window dropped more quickly than the others. In fact, the high-definition plasma screen had no more effect than the blank wall. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, is published in the current issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

“Let’s not be fooled into thinking we can live without nature,” said Peter Kahn, a UW associate professor of psychology who led the research team. “We are losing direct experiences with nature. Instead, more and more we’re experiencing nature represented technologically through television and other media. Children grow up watching Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. That’s probably better than nothing. But as a species we need interaction with actual nature for our physical and psychological well-being.”

Part of this loss comes from what the researchers call environmental generational amnesia. This is the idea that across generations the amount of environmental degradation increases, but each generation views conditions it grew up with as largely non-degraded and normal. Children growing up today in the cities with the worst air pollution often, for example, don’t believe that their communities are particularly polluted.

Co-authors of the study are Batya Friedman, Jennifer Hagman, Erika Feldman and Anna Stolyar of the UW, Brian Gill of Seattle Pacific University, Nathan Freier of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Sybil Carrere of California State University, San Bernardino. Freier and Carrere were both at the UW when they worked on the study. Adapted from materials provided by University of Washington.