Beyond restorative benefits: Evaluating the effect of forest therapy on creativity

Abstract

This study had three purposes: (1) assessing physiological and psychological responses of a 3-day forest therapy workshop, (2) evaluating the effects of the forest therapy workshop on creativity, and (3) examining the relationship between change in emotions and improvements in creativity. We employed a within-subject design in the current study and recruited 23 participants from the attendees of the 2018 Da’an Forest Therapy Workshop in Taiwan. Physiological responses, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure were recorded, and participants’ emotional states were measured. Furthermore, the Chinese Word Remote Associates Test (CWRAT) was used as the indicator of creativity. The study findings indicated the 3-day forest therapy workshop contributed to participants’ physical and mental health by regulating physiological responses as well as increasing positive emotions and reducing negative emotions. In regards to the creativity enhancement, the forest therapy workshop improved participants’ creative performances by 27.74 %, which indicates forest therapy is beneficial for high-level cognitive functioning. Moreover, we noted the change in creativity correlated significantly and negatively with change in the confusion–bewilderment emotion. This result indicates alleviation of confusion–bewilderment correlates with enhancement of creativity. In this study creativity enhancement was quantified in the forest therapy workshop, and an approach for measuring creativity in forest therapy studies was provided. This study extends typical stress-recovery forest therapy research by investigating high-level cognitive functioning (e.g., creativity). The contribution of this study is in the use of the creativity task in a forest therapy study, in addition to comparing the changes in creativity to changes in different aspects of mood.