Exploring the Restorative Effects of Natural Environments in Virtual Reality

Silvia Marocco (), Valeria Vitale, Elena Grossi, Fabio Presaghi, Marino Bonaiuto and Alessandra Talamo
Additional contact information
Silvia Marocco: Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Valeria Vitale: Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Elena Grossi: Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Fabio Presaghi: Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Marino Bonaiuto: Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Alessandra Talamo: Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 4, 1-26

Abstract: Natural environments are known to foster positive emotions and well-being, while Virtual Reality (VR) represents a powerful tool to explore such effects. This study investigates the restorative potential of virtual natural environments for emotional recovery, combining self-report and physiological measures. Fifty-two participants were divided into three Natural groups—formed spontaneously based on their preferred natural scenarios—and a Neutral group—exposed to a neutral scenario. The results reveal that virtual natural scenarios effectively restored positive emotions (valence) after exposure to arousing stimuli. Both neutral and natural scenarios reduced arousal, but the physiological data show higher activation in Natural groups. Interestingly, this activation was positively appraised, supporting emotional recovery. These findings confirm the restorative potential of VR nature, with nuanced arousal effects.

Keywords: nature exposure; virtual reality; emotions; valence; arousal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/4/535/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/4/535/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:4:p:535-:d:1625765

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().