Watching (natural) beauty boosts task performance: testing the nature-as-reward hypothesis

• Published in: Psychological research Vol. 88; no. 3; pp. 1045 - 1059
• Main Authors: Joye, Yannick, Lange, Florian, Lisauskienė, Asta, Makauskaitė, Diana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Cognitive ability; Fractals; Hypotheses; Psychology; Psychology Research; Reinforcement

In two online studies, we tested the “nature-as-reward hypothesis”, which suggests that superior cognitive task performance following nature exposure reflects a general performance improvement, driven by the reward value of beautiful things. In both between-subjects experiments, participants viewed...