Nature in virtual reality improves mood and reduces stress: evidence from young adults and senior citizens

Abstract

Large populations worldwide have been deprived from nature experiences due to mass quarantines and lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, and face a looming mental health crisis. Virtual reality offers a safe and practical solution to increase nature exposure. This research examined the effects of virtual nature using a within-subject design with young adults (Study 1) and senior citizens (Study 2). Results from the young adult sample showed that walking in a virtual forest reduced negative affect due to enhanced nature connectedness, and reduced stress measured by heart rate. Consistently, the senior citizen sample reported improved positive affect due to enhanced nature connectedness after the virtual nature walk. Our findings unveil the underlying mechanism of how virtual nature may improve psychological well-being and demonstrated how virtual nature can be used as an intervention to promote mental health.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10055-021-00604-4.

Keywords: Emotion; Mental health; Nature; Stress; Virtual reality; Well-being.

Fig. 1

Screen capture of nature condition (left) and urban condition (right)

Fig. 2

Walking on the spot while holding onto fixed handlebars for young adults in Study 1 (left) and moving hands up and down for senior citizens in Study 2 (right)

Fig. 3

Mediation analysis testing whether the effect of condition on change in negative affect (post-test minus pre-test) is mediated by change in nature connectedness (post-test minus pre-test). Unstandardized path coefficients are shown. The direct effect reported in parentheses represents the association between condition and change in negative affect when the mediator is excluded. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

Fig. 4

Change in IBI by experimental condition with 95% confidence intervals. Change in IBI was computed as IBI at the given time minus baseline IBI

Fig. 5

Change in RMSSD by experimental condition with 95% confidence intervals. Change in RMSSD was computed as RMSSD at the given time minus baseline RMSSD

Fig. 6

Mediation analysis testing whether the effect of condition on change in positive affect (post-test minus pre-test) is mediated by change in nature connectedness (post-test minus pre-test). Unstandardized path coefficients are shown. The direct effect reported in parentheses represents the association between condition and change in positive affect when the mediator is excluded. ^†p < 0.1, *p < 0.05, **p < .01, ***p < 0.001