What really helps recovery from stress: The leafiness or representational style of trees in a virtual nature?

Abstract

Exposure to actual and virtual nature can reduce stress, but it is largely unknown what dimensions of such experience are beneficial for health. Among the qualities of a nature experience that may translate to stress recovery are the “leafiness” of vegetation and the representation of vegetation present in the landscape. This experimental study investigates the independent effects of these two qualities with urban designers and the general public using virtual reality (VR). We compared the effects of leafiness (with vs. without green leaves) and representation style (realistic with leaves vs. Minecraft with leaves vs. polygonal with leaves) on stress recovery. One hundred and sixteen Chinese participants were exposed to an acute stressor and randomly assigned to one of the four virtual environments during their stress recovery. We measured electrodermal activity (EDA), salivary cortisol levels (SC), electroencephalogram (EEG), blood pressure (BP) data, and self-assessment questionnaires to assess stress recovery. Our results showed that realistic vegetation with leaves facilitated stress recovery effect better than realistic vegetation without leaves. Additionally, realistic vegetation with leaves facilitated stress-recovery comparable to Minecraft style vegetation, and better than polygonal vegetation. These results suggest that landscape architects, urban designers, and virtual environment creators should focus not only on the leafiness of vegetation but also the realism of vegetation—prioritizing natural elements that exhibit life-like, realistic features that align with biophilia principles