Restorative Value of Nature and Skylines in Daylight and After Dark

If people respond to nature environments more in a biological mode and urban environments more in a cultural/experiential mode, then responses would vary less between cultures in response to natural environments than to urban environments. To study this, we had participants from the U.S. and Italy rate each of 32 environments shown in color slides. The environments included eight natural environments and eight urban environments (skylines)—including two historical ones—photographed during the day and night. Although natural environments during the day should be restorative, after dark they have properties that should evoke uncertainty and fear and should thus reduce restorativeness. Historical environments should also have restorative value, as might skylines after dark (Nasar & Terzano, 2010). Participants rated each environment on the five-item Perceived Restorativeness Scale (Berto, 2005). The five items had high inter-item reliability. Using the composite scale, the analysis supported the view that responses to nature were more biological and responses to urban environments were more cultural or experiential. Both U.S. and Italian participants had similar scores for that natural environments—rating day nature as restorative and night nature as non-restorative— but they differed in their ratings of the skylines. U.S. participants rated the skylines as higher in restorativeness than did the Italian participants. Though both groups judged the historical skylines as restorative, cultural differences emerged for the historical skylines as well. Although research indicates that responses to color photos should generalize well to on-site experience, we believe it worthwhile for studies to obtain on-site responses to these kinds of environments. In addition, we recommend that studies employ other measures (including psycho-physiological measures), environments, and groups to find out the degree to which responses to these kinds of environments derive from biology or culture. For urban design, the findings highlight the importance of considering both the socio-physical context