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June 8, 2000

Research Finds Natural Vistas Boost Worker Productivity

Mieke H. Bomann

(ANS) – Philosophers, artists and environmentalists have all touted the benefits of nature as a balm to the mind, body and spirit. Now there's research to support the view that the quality of the view can heal the ravages of an ugly commute – and improve employee productivity as well.

In the last 20 years, a growing body of scientific evidence has shown that simply looking at nature reduces stress. A study in Sweden in the early 1990s found that patients recovering from heart surgery had less anxiety and required fewer painkillers if they had pictures of the natural world in their rooms.

More recently, researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Illinois have found that people who drive on roadways lined with trees and parks are less stressed and more successful in solving mental arithmetic problems afterward.

"The overall pattern of research suggests that a sustainable city, one that sustains, in the long run, human well-being and public health, is one that provides ready access to restorative experiences, and this includes ready access to nature," said Roger Ulrich, a professor of architecture and landscape architecture at Texas A&M in College Park, Texas.

Ulrich, who worked on both studies and directs the university's Center for Health Systems and Design, said it may be no accident that strip-mall blight is at the top of the list of things the public abhors looking at. His research raises the possibility that poor urban design and the lack of at least a fleeting view of the natural world may have substantial personal and personnel costs.

Published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, Ulrich's 1998 study on stress and roadside vegetation took a decidedly different tack than most research on commuting. Previous studies attributed road rage and stress in commuters to their impatience with bumper-to-bumper traffic and ill-mannered fellow drivers.

In their study, Ulrich and his co-authors wanted to see whether stress could also be attributed to what drivers saw out their windshields and in their peripheral vision, and whether the pressure they felt increased if the surrounding terrain was blighted.

One hundred sixty participants were randomly assigned to one of four 10-minute videotaped drives. The speed of the car and the traffic demands of each simulated trip were identical. What varied were the roadsides, which ranged from lush natural vistas to well-designed urban streetscapes to chaotic development.

Immediately before and after the drives, participants were exposed to a mildly stressful event, such as a mathematical task, that simulated the same level of stress as the common daily pressures of dropping the children off at school or picking up dinner at the grocery store.

Not surprisingly, trees proved more calming than concrete. Participants exposed to lush vegetation showed lower levels of stress, as measured by heart rate and various other indicators, than those exposed to visual blight.

But what did surprise Ulrich was the fact that study members who had taken the simulated commute through a jumbled cityscape were less accurate, less flexible, less creative and less persistent in performing cognitive tasks than their peers who took a simulated drive along a lushly planted roadside.

"Very generally, those people who went through strip development performed rather worse on the tests and those who went through nature performed rather better," said Ulrich.

Those drivers exposed to nature also experienced less energy loss, were less reactive and acted "almost as if they'd been given a low dose of beta blockers" and their stress response system dampened, Ulrich said.

"We don't know how long it persists, but (the findings) imply that when people commute through an ugly environment there is a cost not only on the road but in the workplace. At least in the initial part of the work day, (there's) reduced cognitive performance and increased reactivity to stressors," he said.

That, in turn, raises the possibility that productivity in business, particularly in such sectors as high-tech industries where thinking and creative problem solving is central to the creation of a valuable product, could very well depend on the quality of the visual landscape, Ulrich said.

This not only may bode well for trees but for more appealing urban design. Drivers who were exposed not to nature but to good design, where utility wires were hidden and signs met planning and zoning criteria, performed somewhat better than their peers whose views comprised gaudy facades and utility wires.

"A lot of people have believed this passionately, on aesthetic grounds, for well over a century," said Ulrich. "We're just providing some evidence of something like a public health effect."

Ulrich would like to see more research done on natural surroundings and their links to such factors as family hostility, worker absenteeism and the immune system. But for now, he's headed to Northern Ireland.

His peers in Northern Ireland, ravaged by decades of civil war, are exploring how improving the visual environment in and around Belfast might contribute to calming tensions during what has become an annual summer confrontation between Catholic residents and Protestant marchers through the city.

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Mieke H. Bomann is a staff writer for The American News Service.

Contacts:

Roger Ulrich, professor, architecture and landscape architecture, and director of the Center for Health Systems and Design, Texas A&M University, College Park, Texas, 979-845-7009; e-mail: Ulrich@archone.tamu.edu.