Abstract
There is a large body of evidence that exposure to simulated natural scenes has positive effects on emotions and reduces stress. Some studies have used self-reported assessments, and others have used physiological measures or combined self-reports with physiological measures; however, analysis of facial emotional expression has rarely been assessed. In the present study, participant facial expressions were analyzed while viewing forest trees with foliage, forest trees without foliage, and urban images by iMotions’ AFFDEX software designed for the recognition of facial emotions. It was assumed that natural images would evoke a higher magnitude of positive emotions in facial expressions and a lower magnitude of negative emotions than urban images. However, the results showed only very low magnitudes of facial emotional responses, and differences between natural and urban images were not significant. While the stimuli used in the present study represented an ordinary deciduous forest and urban streets, differences between the effects of mundane and attractive natural scenes and urban images are discussed. It is suggested that more attractive images could result in more pronounced emotional facial expressions. The findings of the present study have methodological relevance for future research. Moreover, not all urban dwellers have the possibility to spend time in nature; therefore, knowing more about the effects of some forms of simulated natural scenes surrogate nature also has some practical relevance.
Highlights
People react to the natural environment mostly with positive emotions, and viewing the natural environment has a positive function in mental restoration [1,2,3]
Results facial expressions of all emotions. It was only for facial expressions of the emotion fear, compared to facial expressions of other emotions, where more pronounced differences were found between urban images and both sets of forest images in the expected direction; the p-value was only 0.121
By using automated facial expression analysis, the present study explored whether a short viewing of urban or natural environments would elicit changes in facial expressions of emotions that might reflect changes in actual emotional state
Summary
People react to the natural environment mostly with positive emotions, and viewing the natural environment has a positive function in mental restoration [1,2,3]. Viewing simulated natural scenes may help people to improve their actual emotional state and their mental restoration in situations in which they have no opportunity to visit a real natural environment. We explored emotional facial expressions in viewing natural and urban images and employed automated facial expression analysis by machine vision software. These techniques have developed and improved considerably in the last three decades and may overcome the drawbacks and time consumption associated with the facial action coding system and the technical difficulties of facial electromyography
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