Otten Kars, van Rompay Thomas Jl, van 't Klooster Jan-Willem Jr, Gerritsen Debby L, Westerhof Gerben J
Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
RadboudUMC, Department of Primary and Community Care, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Digit Health. 2024 Sep 11;10:20552076241261886. doi: 10.1177/20552076241261886. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.
Counteracting feelings of loneliness among older adults underscores the need to improve social well-being, for example, by sharing small stories. Interestingly, virtual representation of nature (VN) can stimulate social aspirations and trigger associations, which could be used as conversational material. Especially nature's characteristics of mystery and spaciousness seem promising. Therefore, it was investigated whether VN can elicit small stories in older adults using a randomized 2 (mystery: low vs. high) × 2 (spaciousness: low vs. high) design.
In total 118 participants (60 years and older) were recruited. Small stories, nature-relatedness, available nature opportunities and demographics were measured. The small stories were analysed with respect to story elements (sum range: 0-4) and storytelling characteristics (ease of storytelling, valence, social intention).
The VN were able to elicited small stories: 97% ( = 115) contained at least one story element. Moreover, when participants felt more related to nature and assigned more positive valence to their story, they also had stronger intentions to use their story for social interaction. The VN characteristics of mystery and spaciousness showed no effects.
Not so much the characteristics of nature (mystery and spaciousness) as the characteristics of the participants (nature-relatedness) played an important role in eliciting and sharing small stories.
应对老年人的孤独感凸显了改善社会幸福感的必要性，例如通过分享小故事。有趣的是，自然的虚拟呈现（VN）可以激发社交愿望并引发联想，这些可作为谈话素材。特别是自然的神秘性和广阔性特征似乎很有前景。因此，采用随机的2（神秘性：低 vs. 高）×2（广阔性：低 vs. 高）设计，研究VN是否能引发老年人讲述小故事。
共招募了118名参与者（60岁及以上）。对小故事、与自然的关联性、可得的自然机会和人口统计学特征进行了测量。从小故事元素（总和范围：0 - 4）和讲故事特征（讲故事的难易程度、效价、社交意图）方面对小故事进行了分析。
VN能够引发小故事：97%（n = 115）包含至少一个故事元素。此外，当参与者感觉与自然的关联性更强且对自己的故事赋予更积极的效价时，他们也更有意愿将自己的故事用于社交互动。神秘性和广阔性的VN特征未显示出影响。
在引发和分享小故事方面，起重要作用的与其说是自然的特征（神秘性和广阔性），不如说是参与者的特征（与自然的关联性）。
