Student Photography Study

Abstract

Recent research suggests that walking in nature leads to positive changes in mood and energy. This experiment’s goal was to investigate why walking in nature has this effect on mood and to discover if exposure to nature leads to increased pain tolerance. Participants were assigned to either photograph nature or themselves. Then, results from emotions tests, thoughts tests, and cold presser tasks were compared. Data analysis is not completed, but we hypothesize that the nature photography group will have increased awe and decreased rumination. We believe these thoughts will improve mood and increase pain tolerance.