Study Finds Human Stress And Anxiety Can Be Reduced By Listening To Birds

Have you ever pondered why hearing birds chirp in the mornings seems to be so calming? According to a recent study, listening to bird sounds can aid humans in overcoming tension and anxiety. A group of researchers from Germany assessed the impact of urban traffic noise versus natural bird singing on the participants’ cognitive and emotional function.

Another goal was to evaluate the impact of lower vs. higher soundscape variety by varying the number of various typical traffic noises or different bird species’ songs within the respective soundscapes, states a study published in the Nature portfolio magazine Scientific Reports.

295 participants were randomly randomised to one of four treatments—traffic noise low, traffic noise high, birdsong low, and birdsong high diversity soundscapes—for six minutes in an online experiment conducted by the researchers. Before and after the exposure, the subjects also completed digit-span and dual n-back tasks, as well as surveys for sorrow, anxiety, and paranoia.

Newsweek claims that as the world rapidly urbanises, so too does the environment in which people live. Around 70% of the world’s population is projected to live in cities by 2050, with certain regions, like Europe, already exceeding this percentage.

Given that urbanisation has been linked to worse mental health outcomes, understanding how the urban environment affects our wellbeing is crucial. However, traditional psychological research usually undervalue the impact of environmental influences on human wellbeing and cognition.

‘My colleagues and I are typically fascinated by the impact of the environment on humans, and with our research, we also want to raise awareness about the interdependence between humans and nature,’ said Emil Stobbe, a study author with the Lise Meitner Group, in an interview with Newsweek.

We seek to research the therapeutic effects of natural surroundings in the field of environmental neurosciences, she continued.

According to Newsweek, the German researchers collaborate with the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Department at University Medical Center Hamburg.