Abstract Evidence has been found that contact with nature may reduce rumination in healthy individuals living in urban environments. This paper aims at i) testing whether one may replicate previous findings using a shorter duration of nature exposure, and ii) explore the possibility that a shift in attention away from self (notably induced by the emotion of awe), leading to mood restoration, may mediate such nature-rumination relationship. We showed that a walk as short as 30-min in an urban park significantly reduced ruminative thinking in healthy participants, whereas a 30-min walk along a city transect devoid from natural elements did not. Also, we showed that the “walk in nature” significantly reduced negative mood and elicited more awe and more externally oriented thoughts than the “walk in city”. Our mediation analysis did not show any direct effect of contact with nature on rumination levels. Instead, it showed that the more awe participants experienced while walking, the more negative affect was reduced, which then lead to reduced rumination. Also, our mediation analysis showed that nature can affect rumination via mood improvement only and irrespective of awe. This study adds to previous research supporting the so-called “psychological ecosystem services” and calls for additional efforts aimed at exploring the extent to, and mechanism(s), by which contact with nature may affect rumination, notably in clinical populations.

中文翻译：

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大自然可以让您忘却沉思，减少与大自然接触的影响以及敬畏和情绪的中介作用

摘要 有证据表明，与自然接触可以减少生活在城市环境中的健康个体的反刍。本文旨在 i) 测试是否可以使用更短的自然暴露时间来复制以前的发现，以及 ii) 探索将注意力从自我转移（特别是由敬畏情绪引起），从而导致情绪恢复的可能性，可以调解这种自然-反刍关系。我们表明，在城市公园步行 30 分钟可显着减少健康参与者的反刍思维，而沿着缺乏自然元素的城市断面步行 30 分钟则不会。此外，我们还表明，与“在城市中漫步”相比，“在大自然中漫步”显着减少了负面情绪，并引发了更多的敬畏和更多外向的想法。我们的中介分析没有显示与自然接触对反刍水平的任何直接影响。相反，它表明参与者在行走时感受到的敬畏越多，负面影响就越少，从而导致反刍减少。此外，我们的中介分析表明，自然可以仅通过情绪改善而不是敬畏来影响沉思。这项研究增加了先前支持所谓“心理生态系统服务”的研究，并呼吁进行额外的努力，旨在探索与自然接触可能影响反刍的程度和机制，尤其是在临床人群中。我们的中介分析表明，自然只会通过情绪改善来影响沉思，而与敬畏无关。这项研究增加了先前支持所谓“心理生态系统服务”的研究，并呼吁进行额外的努力，旨在探索与自然接触可能影响反刍的程度和机制，尤其是在临床人群中。我们的中介分析表明，自然只会通过情绪改善来影响沉思，而与敬畏无关。这项研究增加了先前支持所谓“心理生态系统服务”的研究，并呼吁进行额外的努力，旨在探索与自然接触可能影响反刍的程度和机制，尤其是在临床人群中。