In the present research, we test the “nature-as-reward hypothesis” (Joye et al., 2022), which suggests that superior cognitive task performance after nature exposure reflects a general performance improvement, driven by the reward value of beautiful things (rather than cognitive resource replenishment; cf., Attention Restoration Theory; Kaplan, 1995).
In an online experiment, 205 participants were presented with an image of either a beautiful or less beautiful nature scene for 10 seconds, followed by a ticking task that required them to freely tick up to 200 boxes. Participants completed four such ticking tasks, with each task preceded by a nature image. A subset of participants had the ticking task framed as a game. We found that viewing less beautiful nature scenes led to a significant decline in work performance over the four ticking tasks, indicative of task disengagement. However, task performance remained unchanged over the four ticking tasks when participants viewed beautiful nature images. When the ticking task was framed as a game, there was no significant difference in work performance between the two nature conditions. Brief exposures to images of beautiful nature can thus buffer against task disengagement, and framing tasks as a game can attenuate this beautiful nature advantage.
- Time: October 12, 14.00-15.00
- Venue: TechHub Conference Room (40) (NB: seminar will be held live and will not be streamed online)
- Presenter: Yannick Yoye, Senior Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Expertise
- Topic: "Watching Beautiful Nature Buffers Against Task Disengagement. Testing the Nature-as-Reward Hypothesis"
- Working language: English