KU Lecture Series: What Makes Nature Restorative? Evidence, Conceptual Challenges and Ways Forward by Yannick Joye

What Makes Nature Restorative? Evidence, Conceptual Challenges and Ways Forward
Over the past three decades, psychological research on the health benefits of contact with nature has grown rapidly, documenting positive effects on people’s mood, cognitive performance and general well-being—phenomena commonly referred to as “restorative” nature experiences. In this lecture, we take a deep and critical look at this literature and its evidence base. We begin by reviewing the empirical findings that have shaped contemporary understandings of nature’s restorative potential. We then turn to the dominant explanatory frameworks for restorative nature experiences—Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and Stress Reduction Theory (SRT)—highlighting key conceptual and methodological limitations. Particular attention will be given to ART’s persistent reliance on resource-based thinking and to SRT’s often naïve evolutionary assumptions, both of which constrain theoretical precision and empirical progress. We conclude by outlining an alternative perspective grounded in situation-goal discrepancies, offering a more nuanced explanation of when and why natural environments can support restoration.

Yannick Joye
Yannick Joye, PhD, is a philosopher and research professor at Vilnius University (Lithuania). Working at the interface of environmental psychology and philosophical analysis, his research investigates how natural environments shape human well-being, cognition and behaviour, while critically examining the assumptions that underpin mainstream theories. He combines experimental work on the mechanisms of restoration with theoretical contributions that reconsider dominant frameworks and advance alternative perspectives on why nature can be beneficial.

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