scenic route means less stressed-out?

The calming influence of nature may even work on stressed-out drivers. Jack Nasar and Jean Marie Cackowski of Ohio State University report in the November issue of Environment and Behavior that people who viewed a videotape of a scenic drive down a tree-lined road scored lower on a frustration test than those who saw a drive through an urban area filled with buildings and utility poles. The researchers first had participants take a difficult, 10-minute test that was meant to stress them, and the subjects’ frustration levels were then tested. The subjects then watched three different tapes of a view through the front windshield of a car. “Scenic Parkway” showed a four-lane roadway through a wooded area, “Garden Highway” showed a six-lane highway with relatively few buildings and utility poles, and “Built-Up Highway” featured a drive through an area of strip malls with little vegetation. The viewers’ frustration levels were measured again. Even though “Scenic Parkway” had the most congested traffic, its viewers had the lowest frustration scores. “This suggests that the scenic views [. . .] had a restorative, calming effect on those who watched it. If these people were less frustrated, it may translate into a real behavioral difference,” Cackowski stated. The researchers acknowledged that the study was not a realistic driving experience, but, Nasar stated, “The fact that we got results even with this simple study suggest there may be real effects.”

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 12/02/2003.