Soundscapes, music, and memories: Exploring the factors that influence emotional responses to virtual nature content

From walking through a park to sitting on a beach, much is known about the therapeutic potential of direct contact with natural environments. Yet routinely in the UK, millions of people encounter nature in a completely different way: through their television screens. Despite the ubiquity of natural history programming, little is understood about its impact on the restorative and affective experiences of audiences. Nowhere is this truer than in the bold orchestral scores that accompany almost all nature documentaries. Whilst considerable evidence suggests that separately, both nature and music can provide a range of psychological benefits, how their pairing might affect the wellbeing potential of virtual nature encounters remains largely unknown. Similarly, scant research has considered how viewers’ own experiences, recalled through memories, might influence outcomes. To explore these areas, we formed a transdisciplinary broadcast initiative, called BBC Soundscapes for Wellbeing. Part of this project involved a randomized and controlled experiment that presented participants (n = 7636) with a dynamic nature scene accompanied by one of four acoustic tracks. Results demonstrated that whilst adding music to this scene led to increased feelings of excitement, it led to no other restorative or affective benefits when compared to silence. In contrast, the addition of natural sounds was associated with greater feelings of restorative potential, calmness, and excitement. Natural sounds also drove significant increases in the complex emotions of awe and nostalgia. Crucially, results showed the substantial moderating effects of participant memories. Those with positive memories stimulated by the experience reported significantly greater effects across all conditions and dependent variables. We find that although the acoustic design of virtual nature encounters can affect a range of emotional responses, the memories triggered by these experiences may be far more important for predicting viewer outcomes.