Abstract

Noise from city traffic is one of the most significant environmental stressors. Natural soundscapes, such as bird songs, have been suggested to potentially mitigate or mask noise. All previous studies on masking noise use self-evaluation data rather than physiological data. In this study, while respondents (n = 117) watched a 360 degrees virtual reality (VR) photograph of a park, they were exposed to different soundscapes and mild electrical shocks. The soundscapesbird song, bird song and traffic noise, and traffic noisewere played during a 10 min recovery period while their skin conductance levels were assessed as a measure of arousal/stress. No significant difference in stress recovery was found between the soundscapes although a tendency for less stress in bird song and more stress in traffic noise was noted. All three soundscapes, however, significantly reduced stress. This result could be attributed to the stress-reducing effect of the visual VR environment, to the noise levels being higher than 47 dBA (a level known to make masking ineffective), or to the respondents finding bird songs stressful. Reduction of stress in cities using masking with natural sounds requires further studies with not only larger samples but also sufficient methods to detect potential sex differences.

Keywords

stress; experiment; virtual reality; soundscape; bird song; noise

Published in

International journal of environmental research and public health
2019, Volume: 16, number: 8, article number: 1390
Publisher: MDPI

SLU Authors

• Hedblom, Marcus

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG11 Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable


UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Health and Occupational Health


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081390

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/100385