ArticlePloS one2018
How does nature exposure make people healthier?: Evidence for the role of impulsivity and expanded space perception.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Community Forests and Public Health: A Research Agenda.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- Actual and Virtual Parks Benefit Quality of Life and Physical Activity: A Cluster Trial.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2024Trial
- Green Exercise: Can Nature Video Benefit Isometric Exercise?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- How virtual urban green spaces influence stress and risk-taking.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of a nature-based therapy intervention for children with long-term health conditions and associated psychological difficulties.Journal of health psychology · 2025Article
- Multidimensional components of impulsivity during early adolescence: Relationships with brain networks and future substance-use in the Adolescent Brian and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Do residents in proximity to blue spaces exhibit lower emotion-related impulsivity? The mediating role of perceived crowdedness.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Neighborhood environments underpin screen time intervention success in children: Evidence from a study of greenspace and community programming across 130 US communities.Health & place · 2024Article
- Low-Level Visual Features of Window Views Contribute to Perceived Naturalness and Mental Health Outcomes.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Experiencing nature leads to healthier food choices.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- Assessing nature exposure: a study on the reliability and validity of a Portuguese version of the nature exposure scale.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Article
- Spending Time in Nature Serves as a Protective Factor against Problematic Alcohol Use: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Residential green space is associated with a buffering effect on stress responses during the COVID-19 pandemic in mothers of young children, a prospective study.Environmental research · 2022Article
- On the relation between a green and bright window view and length of hospital stay in affective disorders.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2022Article
- The Mediating Effect of Nature Restorativeness, Stress Level, and Nature Connectedness in the Association between Nature Exposure and Quality of Life.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The impact of nature video exposure on pro-environmental behavior: An experimental investigation.PloS one · 2022Article
- Nature Exposure and Positive Body Image: A Cross-Sectional Study Examining the Mediating Roles of Physical Activity, Autonomous Motivation, Connectedness to Nature, and Perceived Restorativeness.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Can Residential Greenspace Exposure Improve Pain Experience? A Comparison between Physical Visit and Image Viewing.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Using greenspace and nature exposure as an adjunctive treatment for opioid and substance use disorders: Preliminary evidence and potential mechanisms.Behavioural processes · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Nature exposure has been linked to a plethora of health benefits, but the mechanism for this effect is not well understood. We conducted two studies to test a new model linking the health benefits of nature exposure to reduced impulsivity in decision-making (as measured by delay discounting) via psychologically expanding space perception. In study 1 we collected a nationwide U.S. sample (n = 609) to determine whether nature exposure was predictive of health outcomes and whether impulsive decision-making mediated the effect. Results indicated that Nature Accessibility and Nature Exposure From Home significantly predicted reduced scores on the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS) (p < .001, p = .03, respectively) and improved general health and wellbeing (p < .001, p < .01, respectively). Nature Accessibility also predicted reduced impulsive decision-making (p < .01), and Nature Accessibility showed significant indirect effects through impulsive decision-making on both the DASS (p = .02) and general health and wellbeing (p = .04). In Study 2, a lab-based paradigm found that nature exposure expanded space perception (p < .001), and while the indirect effect of nature exposure through space perception on impulsive decision-making did not meet conventional standards of significance (p < .10), the pattern was consistent with hypotheses. This combination of ecologically-valid and experimental methods offers promising support for an impulsivity-focused model explaining the nature-health relationship.
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