Given the increasing sophistication of virtual reality systems in providing immersive nature experiences, there is the potential for analogous health benefits to those that arise from real nature experiences. We call for research to better understand the human–nature–technology interaction to overcome potential pitfalls of the technology and design tailored virtual experiences that can deliver health outcomes and wellbeing across society.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
United Nations Statistics Division. SDG Indicators. UN Stats, https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-11/ (2021).
Haaland, C. & van den Bosch, C. K. Urban For. Urban Green. 14, 760–771 (2015).
Ulrich, R. S. Science 224, 420–421 (1984).
Scates, D., Dickinson, J. I., Sullivan, K., Cline, H. & Balaraman, R. Environ. Behav. 52, 895–918 (2020).
Patterson, D. R. et al. Burns 49, 182–192 (2023).
Van Houwelingen-Snippe, J., Ben Allouch, S. & Van Rompay, T. J. L. J. Technol. Behav. Sci. 6, 464–485 (2021).
Clemente, D., Romano, L., Zamboni, E., Carrus, G. & Panno, A. Front. Psychol. 14, 1323758 (2024).
Lin, X. C., Lee, C., Lally, D. & Coughlin, J. F. in Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population (Applications in Health, Assistance, and Entertainment, 10927) (eds. Zhou, J. & Salvendy, G.) 89–100 (Springer, 2018).
Prensky, M. Digital natives, digital imigrants. marcprensky.com, https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf (2001).
Hall, J. A., Kearney, M. W. & Xing, C. Inf. Commun. Soc. 22, 1396–1413 (2019).
Ahn, S. J., Bailenson, J. N. & Park, D. Comput. Human Behav. 39, 235–245 (2014).
Kellert, S. R. in Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations (eds Kahn, P. H. & Kellert, S. R.) 117–151 (MIT Press, 2002).
Reddick, C., Enriquez, R., Harris, R. & Flores, J. Cities 148, 104844 (2024).
Berdejo-Espinola, V., Fuller, R. A. & Zahnow, R. Wellbeing from nature exposure depends on socio-environmental contexts in the Global South. Nat. Cities (in the press).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer reviewer information
Nature Human Behaviour thanks Hunter Hoffman and Junhan Chen for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Berdejo-Espinola, V., Zahnow, R., O’Bryan, C.J. et al. Virtual reality for nature experiences. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01857-0
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01857-0