Sounds of Nature in the City: No Evidence of Bird Song Improving Stress Recovery

Marcus Hedblom, Bengt Gunnarsson, Martin Schaefer, Igor Knez, Pontus Thorsson and Johan N. Lundström
Additional contact information
Marcus Hedblom: Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden
Bengt Gunnarsson: Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
Martin Schaefer: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
Igor Knez: Department of Social Work and Psychology, University of Gävle, 801 76 Gävle, Sweden
Pontus Thorsson: Division of Applied Acoustics, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
Johan N. Lundström: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-12

Abstract: Noise from city traffic is one of the most significant environmental stressors. Natural soundscapes, such as bird songs, have been suggested to potentially mitigate or mask noise. All previous studies on masking noise use self-evaluation data rather than physiological data. In this study, while respondents ( n = 117) watched a 360° virtual reality (VR) photograph of a park, they were exposed to different soundscapes and mild electrical shocks. The soundscapes—“bird song”, “bird song and traffic noise”, and “traffic noise”—were played during a 10 min recovery period while their skin conductance levels were assessed as a measure of arousal/stress. No significant difference in stress recovery was found between the soundscapes although a tendency for less stress in “bird song” and more stress in “traffic noise” was noted. All three soundscapes, however, significantly reduced stress. This result could be attributed to the stress-reducing effect of the visual VR environment, to the noise levels being higher than 47 dBA (a level known to make masking ineffective), or to the respondents finding bird songs stressful. Reduction of stress in cities using masking with natural sounds requires further studies with not only larger samples but also sufficient methods to detect potential sex differences.

Keywords: stress; experiment; virtual reality; soundscape; bird song; noise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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