Is green alone enough? A mixed-design virtual reality study on landscape elements and restorative effects across different occupations

• Examined restorative effects of six different green spaces using VR. • Investigated responses from four different occupations. • Found different occupations had different sensitivities to green spaces. • Scenes with water and flowers showed greater restorative effects than large lawns. • Seasonal flower and large lawn scenes had special impacts on the manual laborers. Although numerous studies have established the positive link between green spaces and human restorative effects, little research has deeply explored how different combinations of natural elements in green spaces affect various occupational groups, especially in the context of post-pandemic urban space compression. This study employed virtual reality (VR) to design a mixed-design experiment involving 120 participants from four major occupational groups, aiming to investigate the differential restorative effects of six natural environments. Following a stress induction procedure, participants randomly experienced all six VR scenes, each for three minutes. By monitoring physiological indicators, alongside psychological measurements, our study assessed the restorative effects across different scenes and emphasized the impact of occupation on restorative experiences. The findings showed that students and office workers were significantly more sensitive to natural environments than manual laborers and the non-working people. Environment featuring water bodies and flowers demonstrated more pronounced restorative effects compared to large lawns, while the restorative effects of various woodland scenes were relatively consistent. Additionally, scenes with seasonal flowers and large lawns had significant and unique impacts on manual laborers. Our study not only provides a human-centered theoretical basis for the design of green space but also underscores the importance of optimizing urban green space layouts according to occupational group distributions to maximize the restorative value of green spaces. Although it cannot fully replace real nature, it proposes that using VR to view green spaces can beyond time and space constraints, offering a flexible method for restorative exploration in the post-pandemic era.