Listening to one-minute-long audio recordings of forest soundscapes has positive effects on people’s short-term wellbeing, new research finds. Improvements to wellbeing were found to be more significant when soundscapes came from local temperate forests, compared to more exotic tropical forests.
Researchers from the University of Surrey and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) investigated the impact different forest soundscapes have on the wellbeing of individuals.
Previous research in this area has uncovered positive associations between exposure to green areas, and natural soundscapes, on mental wellbeing. However, scientists do not fully understand how the diversity of animal sounds in green areas impacts upon wellbeing, nor whether familiar forest sounds are more beneficial than unfamiliar forest sounds.
Dr Melissa Marselle, Lecturer in Environmental Psychology, at the University of Surrey, said:
“Being outside and in nature undoubtedly improves our mood and sense of calm. The ambience of the forest environment, in particular the sounds we hear, birds singing and leaves rustling, plays a role in this. However, despite this we know very little about diversity and complexity of bird song and the positive effect it ignites – do forest soundscapes with more variability in bird and insect sounds make people feel better?
“It is important that we understand this deeply, as the UK bird population is in decline whilst cities and urban areas continue to grow, reducing access to forests and green areas and opportunities to hear the sounds of nature. Conservation of forests and bird species may be important for our own wellbeing, as well as good for nature.”
The researchers recruited 195 participants, who listened to two one-minute-long audio clips of forest soundscapes that differed in two ways.
Participants then answered questions about how they felt, how stressed they were and how well they could focus before and after listening. They also rated how pleasant and familiar the sounds seemed and estimated how many different animals they could hear.
Researchers found that, listening to one-minute recordings of forest sounds made people feel better as they reported more positive emotions, better focus, and less stress. In addition, the strongest effects came from local temperate forests. Recordings from local forests were rated as more familiar, pleasant and more restorative, and they also triggered stronger feelings of awe than sounds from tropical forests.
It was also discovered that forest sounds with more bird and insect species increased feelings of awe when people listened to local forest recordings – but not the more exotic forest sounds. Interestingly, researchers also uncovered what mattered more was what people thought they heard. For example, when participants believed they could hear more bird and insect species, they felt better overall and less negative.
Dr Marselle added:
“What we have found is that acoustic diversity is not uniformly beneficial. The greatest effects can be seen when an individual is familiar with the environment and the animal sounds they hear. A possible explanation for this is that being more familiar with a place could trigger feelings of nostalgia and awe in a person, leading to a sense of calm.
“With more people reporting problems with their mental health our findings show the potential of natural soundscapes being beneficial for nature-based public health interventions such as social prescribing programmes.”
Professor Aletta Bonn, Research Group Head at the UFZ, iDiv, and the University of Jena, said:
“Our findings show that it is not just about how many species are out there. Sounds that remind people of forests they know like the birds they hear on a walk close to home seem to have a much stronger positive effect. This provides amazing new insights into the complex ways in which biodiversity and mental wellbeing are connected.”
This study was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.