Forest Bathing Versus Virtual Simulation Effects on Stress and Wellbeing

Forty-nine highly sensitive persons participated in a randomized cross-over trial comparing 40-minute exposures to a real forest and a 360° video-based virtual forest simulation. The dataset contains quantitative measures like CSP-14, STAI-S, heart rate, and Basel Well-Being Subscales, plus qualitative interview analysis. Joel Kühn authored this study, which was last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Compare the effect sizes (Cohen's d) for CSP-14 and STAI-S scores between real and virtual forest conditions to quantify therapeutic differences.
• Analyze heart rate reduction data (-7.94 vs. -3.47 bpm) to model physiological stress response to different environments.
• Use qualitative interview data to identify themes like 'emotional security' and 'technical limitations' affecting immersive experience.
• Evaluate subscale scores for vitality, intrapsychic balance, and vigilance to identify which wellbeing components are most impacted by authentic nature.
• Assess the dataset for potential biases or limitations in applying findings from highly sensitive persons to broader populations.

Strengths

• Contains both quantitative outcome measures (CSP-14, STAI-S, heart rate) and qualitative interview data for triangulation.
• Study design is a randomized cross-over trial with 49 participants, allowing for within-subject comparisons.
• Primary and secondary outcomes show statistically significant results (p < 0.001) with reported effect sizes.

Limitations

• Small sample size of 49 participants limits generalizability of findings.
• Data is contained within a 688.8 KB DOCX file, requiring manual extraction for computational analysis.
• Geographic and cultural context of the forest environment is unspecified, potentially introducing bias.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Joel Kühn.

Collection Method

Randomized cross-over clinical trial with quantitative surveys, physiological measurements, and qualitative interviews.

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

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