Nature and City Sounds Influence Physiological and Psychological Markers in College Students

Worldwide, human population growth has led to a higher demand for urbanization. While this development is in accordance with our gregarious lifestyles, our availability and contact with nature has consequentially been minimized. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether sounds from nature versus urban environments affect vital signs (i.e., heart rate and respiration rate) and mood states of female college students. Emotional states were assessed using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) questionnaire. While nature sounds included a mixture of birdsongs and water sounds, urban sounds included traffic, construction, and sirens. Following a within-subject design, each participant listened to a 7-minute segment of nature sounds and a 7-minute segment of city sounds in a randomized order. Sounds were played through each participant’s own headphones and devices at a conversational volume of approximately 70 decibels. All dependent variables were recorded before and after listening to each type of sound. This study was performed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (April-August 2020). To comply with health and safety guidelines, each participant met with the experimenter through a WebEx virtual conference, and variables were self-recorded by each of the participants. Exposure to 7-minutes of sounds from a natural environment resulted in statistically significant decreases in both respiration rate and negative affect schedule score when compared to the same time exposure to urban sounds. Furthermore, participants had a significantly higher preference for natural over urban environments according to a survey performed prior to listening to both types of sounds. Future research could help to better understand causes for variability in human responses to sound stimuli.