How Trees Calm Us Down • Hacker News Board

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#21

Post by aaron695 » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 6:19 AM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #12

aaron695 wrote: post #8

An office enriched with plants makes staff happier and boosts productivity by 15 per cent....... https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2014/09/leafy-green-bette...

This study was limited to "employees from two large commercial offices", and probably suffers deeply from a Hawthorne Effect[0]. As usual, the rigor is doubtful. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

Yep. I don't believe the 15% but I think it has value.

Random fact the Hawthorne Effect was BS. Perhaps it's true but the original 'lighting' effect experiment was rubbish.

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#22

Post by anilgulecha » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 6:34 AM UTC

choxi wrote: post #14

anilgulecha wrote: post #7

One hypothesis is that we've also evolved to associate greenery with healthy land and lifestyle. I can see why these signals from millions of years can have the 1% quoted effect.

The interesting question to me is: is that hard-coded or learned?

Evolutionary traits are usually hard-coded.

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#23

Post by thom » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 6:51 AM UTC

abrookewood wrote: post #18

nxzero wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree, wildlife & wilderness is great, but my guess is that there's a confounding factor such as wealth, population density, etc. that has more of an impact on health than trees. Personally, tree are exciting to me, not calming.

What about the evidence of earlier discharge at the same hospital? It wasn't clear how carefully that was evaluated, but surely that would nullify wealth, population density etc since the only difference was the room that people were put in.

How do they decide what room to put people in?

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#24

Post by gabemart » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 7:17 AM UTC

hyperpallium wrote: post #20

> twenty per cent better ... on tests of memory and attention > five times bigger in people who have been diagnosed with clinical depression

In this case the ellipsis is extremely misleading.

> Those who had taken the nature walk performed about twenty per cent better than their counterparts on tests of memory and attention

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#25

Post by et-al » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 7:18 AM UTC

National Geographic had a similar article earlier this year if you'd like to read more:

"This Is Your Brain on Nature"

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/call-to-wild-text

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#26

Post by cantcopy » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 7:35 AM UTC

All of those saying correlation is not causation did not read the article. The study detected an immediate and neasurable effect from just walking among trees.

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#27

Post by hyperpallium » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 7:40 AM UTC

gabemart wrote: post #24

hyperpallium wrote: post #20

> twenty per cent better ... on tests of memory and attention > five times bigger in people who have been diagnosed with clinical depression

In this case the ellipsis is extremely misleading. > Those who had taken the nature walk performed about twenty per cent better than their counterparts on tests of memory and attention

In a randomised trial, how is that misleading?

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#28

Post by gabemart » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 7:58 AM UTC

hyperpallium wrote: post #27

gabemart wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case the ellipsis is extremely misleading. > Those who had taken the nature walk performed about twenty per cent better than their counterparts on tests of memory and attention

In a randomised trial, how is that misleading?

Ah, you're correct, I'm wrong

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#29

Post by amadeusw » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 8:12 AM UTC

greggman wrote: post #10

eggy wrote: post #6

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, but moved out to rural NJ in my thirties. I bought a house on a lake with no motorboats, plenty of black bears and raccoons and lots of trees. I now live in the rice fields of East Java, Indonesia, so I guess you can say I love the outdoors. I do question the science or numbers in the study as much as I believe the basic premise to be true, however, correlation does not automati…

As someone who suffers from hay fever being around trees can be weeks of pain for me every year

My hay fever declined after a serious allergic reaction that sent me to a hospital. Then I also had a few cats, to whom I was allergic to. Hope yours declines, too. I guess I lucked out!

Re: How Trees Calm Us Down

#30

Post by ObeyTheGuts » Fri, Jul 08, 2016, 8:15 AM UTC

anilgulecha wrote: post #7

One hypothesis is that we've also evolved to associate greenery with healthy land and lifestyle. I can see why these signals from millions of years can have the 1% quoted effect.

I think its obvious, we like rivers, mountains, flowers, greenery as they all represent fertillity of the land! (Mountains mean that there will be water even in draughts)