Feeling Stressed and Ugly? Leave the City and Visit Nature! An Experiment on Self- and Other-Perceived Stress and Attractiveness Levels

Claudia Menzel, Fiona Dennenmoser and Gerhard Reese
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Claudia Menzel: Social, Environmental, and Economic Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Fortstraße 7, 76829 Landau, Germany
Fiona Dennenmoser: Social, Environmental, and Economic Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Fortstraße 7, 76829 Landau, Germany
Gerhard Reese: Social, Environmental, and Economic Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Fortstraße 7, 76829 Landau, Germany

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 22, 1-14

Abstract: Natural environments, compared to urban environments, usually lead to reduced stress and positive body appreciation. We assumed that walks through nature and urban environments affect self- and other-perceived stress and attractiveness levels. Therefore, we collected questionnaire data and took photographs of male participants’ faces before and after they took walks. In a second step, female participants rated the photographs. As expected, participants felt more restored and attractive, and less stressed after they walked in nature compared to an urban environment. A significant interaction of environment (nature, urban) and time (pre, post) indicated that the men were rated by the women as being more stressed after the urban walk. Other-rated attractiveness levels, however, were similar for both walks and time points. In sum, we showed that the rather stressful experience of a short-term urban walk mirrors in the face of men and is detectable by women.

Keywords: attractiveness; stress; face perception; natural environment; urban environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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