Listening to birds can reduce stress and anxiety in humans, finds new study

Many of us have noticed that hearing birds chirp in the mornings seems calming. And now a new study has revealed that those sounds can aid humans in overcoming tension and anxiety. A group of researchers from Germany assessed the impact of urban traffic noise versus natural bird singing on the participants' cognitive and emotional function.

They also assessed the impact of lower vs higher soundscape variety by varying the number of various typical traffic noises or different bird species' songs within the respective soundscapes. 

According to a study published in the Nature portfolio magazine Scientific Reports, 295 participants were randomly chosen for one of four treatments -- traffic noise low, traffic noise high, birdsong low, and birdsong high diversity soundscapes -- for six minutes in an online experiment. Before and after the exposure, the subjects also completed digit-span and dual n-back tasks, as well as surveys for sorrow, anxiety, and paranoia.

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As the world rapidly urbanises, so does the environment in which people live. Around 70 percent of the world's population is projected to live in cities by 2050, with certain regions, like Europe, already exceeding this percentage, according to a Newsweek report.

Given that urbanisation has been linked to worse mental health outcomes, understanding how the urban environment affects our well-being is crucial. However, traditional psychological research usually undervalues the impact of environmental influences on human well-being and cognition.