Enhancing the acute psychological benefits of green exercise: An investigation of expectancy effects

Abstract

Objective: Exercising in the presence of a natural environment (termed green exercise) appears to provide addition benefits compared to indoor exercise. We assessed the impact of a green exercise promotional video on the acute psychological benefits of green-outdoor and indoor exercise. Design: Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Two groups undertook green exercise (with one of these groups watching a green exercise promotional video). The other two groups undertook indoor exercise (with one of these groups watching the promotional video). The green-outdoor and indoor exercise conditions were created to replicate those of a previous study (Rogerson, Gladwell, Gallagher, & Barton, 2016b). The promotional video was designed to highlight benefits of green exercise and was used to manipulate expectations of acute green exercise. Method: Participants (N = 60) completed 15-minutes of moderate-intensity cycling, with selfesteem, vigour (dependent variables), and attitudes (manipulation check) assessed pre-and postactivity. Measures of physical activity and green exercise levels were also recorded at baseline. Results: The findings suggest that green exercise elicits greater psychological benefits than indoor exercise, and those benefits can be increased via expectancy modification. In contrast, the same expectancy modification suppressed the psychological benefits of cycling indoors. Conclusions: A promotional video can further enhance the affective response to green exercise. This may help to encourage future physical activity participation holding great promise for researchers, practitioners and policy makers.

Can Simulated Nature Support Mental Health? Comparing Short, Single-Doses of 360-Degree Nature Videos in Virtual Reality With the Outdoors

“…Unexpectedly, our control condition also showed reductions in negative affect. Study recruitment materials mentioned the restorative effects of environments, and participants may have expected relief by relaxing in the indoor control environment despite its lack of restorative elements (Flowers et al, 2018). Also, our college-aged sample of participants could have experienced relief from smartphone restriction.…”

The Role of Methodological Choices in the Effects of Experimental Exposure to Simulated Natural Landscapes on Human Health and Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review

“…Perceived restoration, improved attention or cognition, stress reduction, and greater tolerance for pain were observed in each of approximately 50 experiments. Less commonly measured outcomes included exercise intensity (Akers et al, 2012;Calogiuri et al, 2018;Duncan et al, 2014;Flowers et al, 2018;Franěk & Režný, 2017;Rogerson & Barton, 2015;White et al, 2015;Wooller et al, 2015;Yeh et al, 2017); self-esteem, self-worth, or ego-depletion (Chow & Lau, 2015;Flowers et al, 2018;Johnsen & Rydstedt, 2013;Manzoni et al, 2008Manzoni et al, , 2009Swami, Barron, & Furnham, 2018;Swami, Pickering et al, 2018); self-regulation or impulsivity ( M. S. Berry et al, 2014Berry et al, , 2015Jenkin et al, 2018;Pretty et al, 2005;van der Wal et al, 2013); energy or vitality (Kjellgren & Buhrkall, 2010;Ryan et al, 2010;van den Berg et al, 2014); and aggression or prosocial behavior (Eggert et al, 2015;Nadkarni et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2017). One study found support for the positive effects of nature simulations on creativity (van Rompay & Jol, 2016).…”

Affective Outcomes of Group versus Lone Green Exercise Participation

“…The opposite interpretation is also possible-the positive effects of exercise and/or the environment were simply far larger than any influences of social setting. Although the design of the current study does not allow for conclusions about such environmental effects, previous research has frequently reported that greenspaces promote greater psychological improvements compared to exercise in built (real or simulated) or indoor environments [1,2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]14,32]. If environmental settings do indeed influence psychological outcomes in this way, considering the affective improvements observed, the current findings suggest that practitioners should not fear possible lessening impacts of group settings on the cited benefits of selecting nature/greenspace environments for boosting psychological outcomes.…”

“…In comparison with equivalent forms of exercise in indoor or built environments and in laboratories while viewing environmental scenes [1], exercise in greenspaces has been shown to increase levels of directed attention [2][3][4], improve mood [4][5][6], reduce levels of frustration and arousal, increase levels of meditation [7], and improve self-reported mental health across 8 weeks [8]. Positive expectancy can enhance some of these acute effects of the environment [9]. Two popular psychological outcomes reported by research focussing on the importance of environmental setting are mood and self-esteem [10][11][12][13][14].…”