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Nature gives us strength: Exposure to nature counteracts ego-depletion
Author(s)
Date Issued
2015
Journal
ISSN
0022-4545
Citation
Journal of Social Psychology, Jan/Feb 2015, vol. 155(1), pp. 70-85.
Type
Peer Reviewed Journal Article
Abstract
Previous research rarely investigated the role of physical environment in counteracting ego-depletion. In the present research, we hypothesized that exposure to natural environment counteracts ego-depletion. Three experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis. In Experiment 1, initially depleted participants who viewed pictures of nature scenes showed greater persistence on a subsequent anagram task than those who were given a rest period. Experiment 2 expanded upon this finding by showing that natural environment enhanced logical reasoning performance after ego-depleting task. Experiment 3 adopted a two- (depletion vs. no-depletion) -by-two (nature exposure vs. urban exposure) factorial design. We found that nature exposure moderated the effect of depletion on anagram task performance. Taken together, the present studies offer a viable and novel strategy to mitigate the negative impacts of ego-depletion.
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