EasyBreezyMind
1 peer-reviewed source, DOI-verifiedUpdated Oct 1, 2026How we verify
Why does green space feel restorative? This experiment separated sight, sound and smell to see which senses drive physiological stress recovery.
| Study type | Experimental study (pseudo-randomized) |
|---|---|
| Who took part | 154 participants |
| What was tested | 360° images of a city, forest or park, combined with matching smells (nature or city) and sounds (birdsong or noise) |
| Published | Scientific Reports, 2019 |
| Free to read | Full text on PubMed Central |
| Licence | Open access, Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) |
What the researchers did
Participants were exposed to stress and then to one of three virtual environments, with visual, smell and sound stimuli. Stress was measured through skin conductance.
What they found
- The park and forest environments provided significant stress reduction; the urban environment did not.
- When people rated an environment as pleasant, physiological stress was lower for smells, and to some extent sounds — but not for visuals.
- The authors suggest smell may be better at supporting stress recovery than sight.
What this doesn’t prove
- It was a virtual, lab-based experience, not a real walk.
- Stress was measured with one physiological marker.
- Participants were not fully randomized.
How to use this
When you can’t get outside, open a window, notice natural smells and sounds, and pair it with a few minutes of slow breathing.
In a virtual experiment, park and forest environments, but not an urban one, produced significant physiological stress recovery; pleasant smells seemed to matter more than visuals.
Summary written by EasyBreezyMind in our own words. Original article: Hedblom M, et al. (2019). Reduction of physiological stress by urban green space in a multisensory virtual experiment. Scientific Reports. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-46099-7. © The authors. Published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This summary is educational and is not endorsed by the authors.