Silent reflection – inside or in nature? Which benefits us most?

Research by Eric Pfeifer and Marc Whitman (2020) explores the perception of silence and its potential therapeutic effect. It also points to the important role of nature ‘as a booster concerning the positive effects of silence experiences.’

The research involved a series of quantitative studies during which individuals were silent in different contexts – indoors and in a city garden.  Silence was judged to increase relaxation, improve mood states and alter perception of time.  The studies also indicated that being silent in a natural setting significantly increased relaxation and the participants’ perception of the duration of silence and passage of time.  Furthermore, boredom was lower in nature in comparison to an indoor setting.

In a further study (Eric Pfeifer, Kerstin Pothmann, Stefan Claaken and Marc Wittmann, 2023), the experience of a short period of silence in the natural environment of a forest was compared with the same amount of silence in a seminar room.  Participants felt significantly more relaxed and less bored in the forest.  They also experienced time less intensely, judging it to pass more quickly in nature.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00602/full