Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness

by Ingrid Fetell Lee

Frances Kuo and William Sullivan, the founders of the Landscape and Human Health Lab at the University of Illinois, have found significant correlations between a lack of green space and violence among residents in large housing projects in Chicago. In a notable study, they examined police crime reports for ninety-eight buildings in the Ida B. Wells housing project, finding that buildings with more surrounding vegetation had 50 percent fewer crimes than those with minimal greenery. A similar effect has been observed in prisons, where inmates displayed fewer aggressive tendencies after watching nature videos, resulting in a 26 percent reduction in violent incidents. And in another study, exposure to gardens mitigated the frequency of hostile outbursts among Alzheimer’s patients that often take place as the disease progresses. One reason that natural stimuli are effective at reducing violence is that they evoke a response that is simultaneously joyful and calming (“emotionally positive” and “low arousing” in psychologists’ terms).