Reduction of physiological stress by urban green space in a multisensory virtual experiment
Journal article, 2019

Although stress is an increasing global health problem in cities, urban green spaces can provide health benefits. There is, however, a lack of understanding of the link between physiological mechanisms and qualities of urban green spaces. Here, we compare the effects of visual stimuli (360 degree virtual photos of an urban environment, forest, and park) to the effects of congruent olfactory stimuli (nature and city odours) and auditory stimuli (bird songs and noise) on physiological stress recovery. Participants (N = 154) were pseudo-randomised into participating in one of the three environments and subsequently exposed to stress (operationalised by skin conductance levels). The park and forest, but not the urban area, provided significant stress reduction. High pleasantness ratings of the environment were linked to low physiological stress responses for olfactory and to some extent for auditory, but not for visual stimuli. This result indicates that olfactory stimuli may be better at facilitating stress reduction than visual stimuli. Currently, urban planners prioritise visual stimuli when planning open green spaces, but urban planners should also consider multisensory qualities.

Author

Marcus Hedblom

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Bengt Gunnarsson

University of Gothenburg

Behzad Iravani

Karolinska Institutet

I. Knez

University of Gävle

Martin Schaefer

Karolinska Institutet

Pontus Thorsson

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Applied Acoustics

Johan N. Lundström

Karolinska Institutet

University of Pennsylvania

Stockholm University

Monell Chemical Senses Center

Scientific Reports

2045-2322 (ISSN) 20452322 (eISSN)

Vol. 9 1 10113

Subject Categories

Architectural Engineering

Architecture

Landscape Architecture

DOI

10.1038/s41598-019-46099-7

PubMed

31300656

More information

Latest update

11/7/2019