Landscape exposure and exercising for health: exposure to natural versus urban landscapes promotes walking for health.

Abstract

Objective: A common tendency among humans is the devaluation of remote, larger benefits in favour of immediate, smaller gains, a phenomenon known as temporal discounting. Exercising for health necessitates focusing on long-term health benefits while minimising perceived obstacles. Recent studies have demonstrated that experiencing nature may reduce the discounting tendency. We conducted a behavioural experiment to investigate whether exposure to natural environments could decrease temporal discounting, thereby enhancing the inclination to walk for health.

Method: In total, 140 participants were randomly assigned to view images of either natural or urban landscapes. They completed a measure of discounting and participated in a pedometer-based task. In this task, the selection of a meeting point at a greater or lesser distance, along with the additional distance walked, were used as indicators of health-oriented walking behaviour.

Results: Participants exposed to natural settings were more likely to choose a distant meeting point for returning the pedometer and engaged in greater additional walking than those exposed to urban settings. Temporal discounting played a mediating role in these effects.

Conclusions: These findings offer an explanation for the reduced propensity towards health-related exercise among urban residents, and provide a novel strategy for promoting exercise motivation in contemporary lifestyles.