Natural five-sense experience and positive and negative emotions: the mediating role of nature connectedness

Nature experience is a relatively easy and beneficial measure for improving emotions. Individuals experience nature through proximal senses (tactile, gustatory, and olfactory) and distal senses (vision and audition). This study examined the relationships between diverse natural senses experience and individuals' positive and negative emotions, along with the mediating role of nature connectedness. We recruited 978 college students (Mage = 20.09 ± 1.09 years old) from Beijing, China. The results showed that tactile experience (e.g. touching trees and water) was negatively related to negative emotions, while gustatory experience (e.g. tasting fresh fruits) was positively correlated with positive emotions. Furthermore, nature connectedness mediated the relationship between other natural sensory experiences and positive and negative emotions, except for the insignificant mediation between olfactory experiences and negative emotions. Therefore, individuals should emphasize the role of the proximal senses (especially tactile and gustatory experiences) during nature experiences and increase nature connectedness to maintain positive emotions.