Key to staying calm unveiled by main biologist – stroking and smelling wooden
The secret to staying calm has been revealed – stroking wood.
Oxford professor Baroness Kathy Willis reckons touching timber can lower blood pressure and produce a soothing effect. And she has compared it to the calming reaction from stroking a dog.
Willis, a professor of biodiversity, said humans will often “subconsciously” stroke furniture and panelling can also give out a soothing smell.
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She told the Instant Genius podcast: “The more I looked at the evidence, the more I realised that there is actually some good quantitative evidence, which is statistically significant.
“For example, if you stroke wood – that actually is a bit like stroking a dog. It can lower your blood pressure, compared to if you stroke – I don’t know, marble or steel, even if they’re all at the same temperature.
“And particularly with the wood – it’s the finish.”
(Image: Getty Images)
The boffin, 60, added putting your hand on “unfinished wood” will make you feel most chilled. “And funnily enough, when you think about it, you think about a lot of this work has been done, not by scientists, but kitchen designers and furniture makers,” she said.
“And if you think about it, I’ve now become sort of slightly intrigued by this… if you ever go to a home store and you look at people in kitchen areas, looking at the kitchens – they always stroke the bench.
“And then you think, actually, I will stroke a desk or I’ll stroke a surface. And so we sort of subconsciously do it to see how it feels.”
The life peer said the whiff of wood panelling can also help people relax. She said: “It’s the same also about your feet being on wood versus your feet being on steel or marble.
“But the other thing about wood and wood panelling they’ve shown is that wood panelling in offices and school rooms and things – and even homes – those woods that give out pining, for example, so many of the conifers, the softwoods, give out this smell.
“That scent carries on being given out for a number of years, many years, 30 years after the woods up there.”
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