RESEARCH
The Affective Benefits of Nature Exposure
Summary
Based on the provided source, which is a review article, the study’s design involves synthesizing and evaluating existing evidence regarding the affective benefits of exposure to nature. It examines the evidence demonstrating that nature exposure is associated with behavioral and psychophysiological responses indicative of decreased stress and negative affect, alongside increased subjective well-being and positive affect. The review is important as it delves into the underlying mechanisms that might explain these effects, with a particular focus on affect regulation, and considers factors that might modify these effects at individual and population levels. The paper defines nature broadly, encompassing everything from a potted plant to expansive wilderness, reflecting the diverse forms of nature exposure studied in the literature it reviews.
The methodology employed in this review involved surveying findings from a wide range of study designs found in the literature, including cross-sectional, longitudinal, natural experiments, and controlled field and laboratory experiments. The evidence comes from various forms of nature exposure, such as viewing images, virtual reality immersion, and physical presence in natural settings. The review also discusses how the affective impacts have been assessed using multiple methods, including self-report, psychophysiological measures, biomarkers of stress and inflammation, and brain responses. A significant aspect highlighted is the variability in affective impacts based on the duration and frequency of exposure, the characteristics of the environment itself (like biodiversity and landscape type), and individual differences among people.
