Different Types of Virtual Natural Environments Enhance Subjective Vitality Through Restorativeness

Citation

Theodorou, A., Romano, L., Bratman, G. N., Carbone, G. A., Rodelli, R., Casagrande, G., & Panno, A. (2023). Different types of virtual natural environments enhance subjective vitality through restorativeness. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 101981. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.101981

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There’s a growing body of evidence showing that virtual nature — experiencing natural scenes through technology — can boost mood and reduce stress. But researchers wanted to know: could it also increase subjective vitality, that positive feeling of being alive and full of energy?

To find out, they designed a study with 113 university students. Each participant put on a VR headset and viewed 360-degree panoramic photos of one of four environments: a national park, a lakeside setting, an arctic landscape, or an urban city scene.

The researchers measured how vital and energized participants felt right before and right after the experience. They also accounted for a range of other factors — things like age, personality, prior VR experience, how often each person spent time in real nature, and how they felt during the VR session itself.

The results backed up what the researchers suspected. Compared to the urban environment, each of the three natural settings had a positive effect on subjective vitality — and that boost happened through a sense of restorativeness, the feeling that the environment was helping them recover from mental fatigue.

In other words, it wasn’t just that virtual nature looked nice. It seemed to help people feel restored, and that restoration translated into greater energy and aliveness.

The findings open up practical possibilities for psychological interventions — from stress management to wellness programs — especially for people who can’t easily get outside. But more research is needed to understand how best to use virtual nature and for whom it works most effectively.

Abstract

Figure 1. Graphical representation of the experimental procedure.

The body of evidence supporting the psychological benefits of exposure to virtual nature, such as increased mood and decreased stress, is rapidly growing. However, few studies have explored the potential of virtual nature to boost subjective vitality, defined as a positive feeling of aliveness and energy. In this contribution, we investigate the role of virtual nature in enhancing subjective vitality through restorativeness. In particular, we expand the existing literature by considering different types of natural environments (i.e., a national park, a lacustrine environment, and an arctic environment vs. an urban environment). We designed a randomized between-subject design with a sample of 113 university students (M_age = 21.99, SD = 1.82). Participants were exposed to four 360-degree panoramic photos with a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display. We collected measures of the variables of interest immediately before and after exposure, and a series of control variables (i.e., sociodemographics, individual differences and personal conditions, previous VR experience, frequency of contact with nature, and variables related to participants’ experience during VR). We performed a mediation analysis with a multicategorical independent variable (i.e., the experimental condition). Results confirmed our hypotheses, with three significant indirect effects of virtual nature exposure on subjective vitality through restorativeness, one for each natural environment as compared to the urban environment. The wide range of practical implications for different types of psychological interventions as well as future research directions are discussed.