Previous research rarely investigated the role of physical environment in counteracting ego-depletion. In the present research, we hypothesized that exposure to natural environment counteracts ego-depletion. Three experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis. In Experiment 1, initially depleted participants who viewed pictures of nature scenes showed greater persistence on a subsequent anagram task than those who were given a rest period. Experiment 2 expanded upon this finding by showing that natural environment enhanced logical reasoning performance after ego-depleting task. Experiment 3 adopted a two- (depletion vs. no-depletion) -by-two (nature exposure vs. urban exposure) factorial design. We found that nature exposure moderated the effect of depletion on anagram task performance. Taken together, the present studies offer a viable and novel strategy to mitigate the negative impacts of ego-depletion.

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physical environment counteracting two depletion vs nodepletion bytwo nature exposure logical reasoning nature scenes egodepletion urban exposure anagram task

Jason T, Chow Shun, Lau,.Nature gives us strength: exposure to nature counteracts ego-depletion.. 155 (1),70-85.

Jason T, Chow Shun, Lau,"Nature gives us strength: exposure to nature counteracts ego-depletion." 155

Jason T, Chow Shun, Lau,"Nature gives us strength: exposure to nature counteracts ego-depletion."