Can Virtual Reality Nature Exposure Reduce University Students’ Stress and Anxiety? A Preliminary Experimental Study

University students often experience heightened stress due to academic pressure, financial concerns, and life transitions, with potential consequences for psychological and physical wellbeing, behaviour, and learning. Exposure to natural environments has consistently been shown to reduce stress; however, barriers to accessing these environments may limit their benefits for university students. Virtual Reality (VR) offers a potentially accessible alternative by providing immersive simulations of natural environments. This preliminary study examined whether a 20-min VR nature experience could reduce stress among university students compared with a VR museum experience and a quiet-activity control condition. Thirty university students were allocated to one of the three conditions and completed measures of perceived stress and state anxiety before and after the intervention, alongside measures of nature relatedness, presence, user experience, and engagement. The VR nature condition showed a greater reduction in state stress than the VR museum condition but did not differ significantly from the quiet-activity control condition. State anxiety significantly decreased from pre- to post-intervention across conditions, although this reduction did not significantly differ between conditions. Both VR conditions reported significantly higher user experience than the control, whilst engagement was significantly higher in the VR nature condition than the control. However, no significant between-condition differences were detected for presence. These preliminary findings suggest that brief VR nature exposure may support student wellbeing and provide a basis for further adequately powered investigation.