By Marilisa Herchet, Marek Venený, Lukas Kauls, Clara Mentzel, Timon Krause, Caroline Surrey, and Mathias Hofmann

This Plain Language Summary is published in advance of the paper discussed. Please check back soon for a link to the full paper.

What did we find?

In our research, we found that daily contact with nature supports many aspects of mental health. Connecting with nature every day can reduce anxiety, depressive feelings, and stress. Contact with nature also leaves people feeling restored. In cities, daily contact with nature decreases negative mood and increases positive mood. It also helps to sustain attention.

How did we find out?

To learn more about the effect of daily contact with nature, we conducted a meta-analysis. That is, we summarized existing research on the same subject. We gathered the most important data from controlled studies measuring mental health before and after nature contact (for example, a walk in the park). By combining many similar studies and looking for an overall effect of nature contact, we can have a stronger result.

What else is important to know?

The results are averages of many people. However, people are different, so the average might not be true for everyone. Also, it is not possible to study all the people on the planet – we can almost never study everyone, which is why we have to look at samples. However, most of the studies we found in our search were based on university students and people from Europe, North America and Asia. This means that we should be careful in over-interpreting the results for other regions and other professions.

What does this mean?

There is a high chance that being in contact with nature (outside, through indoor plants or maybe even a little through pictures or documentaries) will support your mental health. Public health and city planning institutions should focus on providing healthy green spaces to the urban population.