Urban soundscapes: the effect of auditory stimulation on mood

Negative moods can lead to a variety of negative health outcomes. Although we know how people’s reactions to a variety of visual elements can increase or decrease their moods, we know a great deal less about the extent to which sounds in the landscape influence mood. What is the relationship between visual environments and soundscapes and how do they interact to affect mood in urban cityscapes? To what extent do some typical landscape sounds increase negative feelings? To what extent do other typical sounds create calming and positive feelings in the landscape? This research examines the extent to which different sounds in urban landscapes affect people's self-reported mood. I conducted a lab-based experimental study in which participants were randomly assigned to watch videos of various urban spaces paired with nature sounds, traffic sounds or white noise. They filled out the Multi-dimensional Mood Questionnaire before and after watching and listening to the videos. I measured the impact the videos and sound had on changes in participant’s moods. The findings from this work show that soundscapes impact mood more so than urban spaces in consistent and measurable ways. Soundscapes depicting nature evoked pleasant moods for people while traffic sounds and white noise evoked unpleasant moods for people amid urban spaces. This thesis produced new knowledge on the effects of different soundscapes on people’s mood, and has implications for teaching and practice