Workplace greenspace exposure and the change in dimensions of mood states: an experimental study in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Changes in the dimensions of psychological health in relation to workplace greenspace exposure and its relationship with job stress was not yet fully revealed. A neighboring park of the workplace and a forest were chosen to represent experimental stimuli and the control, respectively. The experiment was conducted in March 2021 in Taiwan, using a virtual reality. Results show that negative emotions decreased in the post-test in both environment settings. However, positive emotion increased only after exposure to the forest (t=-3.88, p < .001). After virtually visiting the workplace greenspace, depression in the high stress group decreased significantly (t = 3.48 , p < .01) while the counterpart did not exhibit any significant change. Based on the interviews, participants only indicated stressful elements of the workplace greenspace video, despite the video also contained natural elements. Topics related to work decreased feelings of being away. Greenspace in a work context should be carefully designed to avoid the stressful elements.

KEYWORDS:

• Restorative environments
• greenspace
• workplace
• virtual reality
• psychological health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Mini–stry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [MOST110-2410-H-227-009-MY2].