A Psychoevolutionary Approach to Identifying Preferred Nature Scenes With Potential to Provide Restoration From Stress

What is it about?

People are prone to experiencing chronically high levels of stress in health care settings. One well-documented approach to reducing stress is spending time in nature, however most health care settings offer little opportunity or choice when it comes to contact with the natural landscape. The experience of being in nature is at least partially emulated via use of photography and digital technology, in turn providing relief from stress (as well as any number of other possible benefits). This study used the psycho-evolutionary construct of importance for survival to develop an effective and replicable method for selecting generally-preferred images of natural landscape scenes, which also provide potential for relief from stress for viewers. Thus, those who produce and select nature images for use in health care settings may use this process to guide selection of images that are both visually appealing to most people, and that also hold therapeutic potential for those who view them.

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