Abstract
Evidence that experiences of nature can benefit people has accumulated rapidly. Yet perhaps because of the domination of the visual sense in humans, most research has focused on the visual aspects of nature experiences. However, humans are multisensory, and it seems likely that many benefits are delivered through the non-visual senses and these are potentially avenues through which a physiological mechanism could occur. Here we review the evidence around these lesser studied sensory pathways—through sound, smell, taste, touch, and three non-sensory pathways. Natural sounds and smells underpin experiences of nature for many people, and this may well be rooted in evolutionary psychology. Tactile experiences of nature, particularly beyond animal petting, are understudied yet potentially fundamentally important. Tastes of nature, through growing and consuming natural foods, have been linked with a range of health and well-being benefits. Beyond the five senses, evidence is emerging for other non-visual pathways for nature experiences to be effective. These include ingestion or inhalation of phytoncides, negative air ions and microbes. We conclude that (i) these non-visual avenues are potentially important for delivering benefits from nature experiences; (ii) the evidence base is relatively weak and often based on correlational studies; and (iii) deeper exploration of these sensory and non-sensory avenues is needed.
Highlights
Experiences of nature provide people with multiple benefits to health and well-being, yet the mechanisms by which these benefits are delivered are not well understood [1,2]
Many benefits that people receive from nature accrue through the five senses as well as at least three non-sensory avenues: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, phytoncides, negative air ions, and microbes
Most research focuses on the visual nature benefits, and we have briefly reviewed this as well as examining the other pathways through which nature benefits are delivered, concluding that there is a need to broaden work beyond merely the visual sense and to take some experimental studies into the field
Summary
Experiences of nature provide people with multiple benefits to health and well-being, yet the mechanisms by which these benefits are delivered are not well understood [1,2]. Public Health 2017, 14, 864 on the range [7] The cure they suggested was simple: experiences of pleasant rural scenery. One study found that while a virtual nature environment was able to reduce stress in participants, these participants felt negatively towards the virtual environment, and expressed a sense of missing the full sensory experience of real nature [14]. This example highlights the possible shortcomings of assuming visual delivery is the dominant pathway through which nature benefits are delivered. There may be a difference between passive sensation, and the step after it of processing to perception
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