Built nature spaces have been increasingly integrated into our urban environments in recent years with the aim of reaping their psychological benefits. However, despite numerous works of research on the relationship between nature exposure and well-being, most studies have looked into the benefits of well-being from the lens of isolated elements of nature, such as natural scenery or animal exposure. This study aims to fill in the gaps by examining the additive and multiplicative relationships between natural scenery exposure and human–animal interaction on affective well-being (i.e., positive affect, negative affect, and stress) through a daily diary study. Over seven days, natural scenery exposure, human–animal interactions, and affective well-being of 514 young adults were assessed. Through multilevel modelling, we found that natural scenery exposure was associated with increased positive affect at the within- and between-person levels. Moreover, human–animal interaction was associated with increased positive affect at the within-person level. No evidence was found for human–animal interaction as a moderator of the relationship between natural scenery exposure and affective well-being. Our findings support the additive, but not multiplicative, relations between natural scenery exposure and human–animal interactions on their influence on affective well-being. The exploratory analysis showed the lack of multiplicative relationship which can be attributed to the distinct mechanism of the effect between natural scenery exposure and human–animal interactions on affective well-being.

With the abundance of social media content that promotes unrealistic beauty standards, there are growing concerns about the potential negative impact of social media use on body image satisfaction. While some studies highlight negative associations, others present null effects, pointing to methodological limitations like biased and unreliable self-reported screen time measures and a focus on singular platforms. Addressing these gaps, our study employed a daily diary method to objectively measure social media screen time across six major platforms ( Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook), alongside daily body image dissatisfaction among 252 young adults ( M_age = 21.67 years, 67.77% female) over 7 days. Through multilevel modeling, our analysis revealed no significant within- or between-person associations between social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction, a finding consistent across all platforms. In addition, the lack of association between social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction was consistent across several exploratory moderators such as sex, self-esteem, and perfectionistic self-presentation. The current study did not find strong evidence supporting the concerns surrounding the potential detrimental link between social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction.

Despite skepticism and distrust in artificial intelligence (AI), it is increasingly integrated into daily life, with its potential benefits drawing interest. Yet little is known about the attitudinal and psychological effects of human–AI interactions, and whether consistent interactions with AI chatbots can change users’ attitudes and perceptions. Our within-subjects experiment (N = 52) investigated how five days of socially oriented, friendlike interactions with an AI chatbot, versus a journaling control, influenced changes in attitudes and perceptions of AI. Participants’ attitudes towards AI, trust, perceived empathy, anthropomorphism, animacy, likeability, perceived intelligence and safety, dependency, and exploratory well-being indicators were recorded. Results indicated that consistent friendlike interaction with AI chatbots led to significant increases in perceived empathy and animacy of technology, but no changes in global attitudes and perceptions of anthropomorphism. Participants also reported higher self-esteem levels after journaling, compared to after AI interaction. This suggests that although friendly engagement with AI chatbots may lead to perceptions of empathy and lifelikeness, where users interpret it to be genuinely understanding and supportive, this comes with trade-offs for self-esteem. Concurrently, empathy and perceived lifelikeness increased without corresponding increases in anthropomorphism, indicating that users may regard AI chatbots as separate living entities rather than having human-like qualities.

Background: Mindfulness has been shown to enhance emotional well-being and cognitive performance, yet much of this evidence stems from interventions requiring prolonged practice, making them time-consuming and less accessible. Recent studies suggest that brief mindfulness sessions may also yield positive outcomes, but the effectiveness of such interventions in virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) remains underexplored. Objective: This study investigates the effects of brief mindfulness breathing exercises delivered through VR and MR on attentional and emotional restoration and self-control capacity. Methods: Using a within-subjects experimental design, 102 undergraduate participants (n=83, 81.4% female; mean age 20.87, SD 1.89 ) completed a brief (approximately 15 min) VR and MR mindfulness breathing intervention delivered via a head-mounted display and a duration-matched mind-wandering audio control condition. Participants were undergraduates recruited via convenience sampling from psychology courses in a local university in Singapore. These conditions were separated by a 1-week washout period. Emotional well-being and self-control capacity were measured at baseline and post treatment, using self-report measures, whereas working memory capacity was measured at both time points, using operation span at baseline and rotation span post treatment. Results: Repeated-measures ANOVAs (α=.05) indicated that VR and MR mindfulness breathing conditions significantly enhanced positive affect ( P <.001, η _p ²=0.366), reduced negative affect ( P <.001, η _p ²=0.279), and improved self-control capacity ( P <.001, η _p ²=0.219), compared with the mind-wandering control condition. In contrast, no significant differences were observed for working memory, and Bayesian analyses provided moderate evidence in support of the null hypothesis for both the main effect of condition and the time×condition interaction (BF ₀₁ =7.42 and BF ₀₁ =5.55, respectively). Participants reported significantly greater absorption in the VR and MR conditions than in the control condition (Cohen’s d =−1.61, 95% CI −1.91 to −1.32). Conclusions: These findings suggest that a brief VR and MR mindfulness breathing exercise improves emotional well-being and self-control capacity relative to a mind-wandering control but does not yield short-term benefits for working memory. In contrast to existing studies that typically emphasize stress reduction or rely on multisession digital interventions, this study highlights that a single brief VR or MR session can enhance key emotional and self-regulatory outcomes. As such, these results underscore the potential of VR and MR mindfulness interventions as scalable and accessible tools for promoting mental well-being, while also pointing to the need for further research to optimize their cognitive impact.