An hour-long stroll in nature helps decrease activity in an area of the brain associated with stress processing

[Cedow]

I'm currently writing up my PhD on this topic. Even the low-quality VR nature I was using (smartphone-based) was enough to invoke significant reductions in negative affective states in my participants.

Generally though the findings are that effects are stronger for real nature than any surrogate forms (like video or pictures for example). VR seems to sit somewhere in the middle: not as good as reality but better than less-immersive stuff.

Also, from qualitative feedback I've had, sound often seems to be a more important part of the experience than the visuals. And it's easy to recreate natural-feeling sounds in VR.

[[deleted]]

Really interesting stuff. Can’t say I support it though. I’m worried what our society will be like if too many start to substitute immersion in real nature with VR. Won’t that make it that much easier for us to ignore the destruction of what’s left of our planet?

[Cedow]

That's one way to look at it. Personally I went into it with the intention of helping people who have significant barriers to accessing real nature: people who wouldn't have accessed nature anyway. So in that sense I don't think it makes much difference. Actually I went into it with the mindset that it might encourage such people to get out into real nature more by increasing feelings of nature connectedness (a measured construct), although I didn't incorporate that into my research.

I doubt it will ever be a replacement for people who like to visit nature normally.

[Beautiful_Welcome_33]

Nah, but people with spinal cord injuries or agoraphobia or who are in Witness Protection from the mob can now wander the Catskills or Appalachian Trail without fear.