Tranquillity (also spelled tranquility) is the quality or state of being tranquil; that is, calm, serene, and worry-free. The word tranquillity appears in numerous texts ranging from the religious writings of Buddhism—where the term passaddhi refers to tranquillity of the body, thoughts, and consciousness on the path to enlightenment—to an assortment of policy and planning guidance documents, where interpretation of the word is typically linked to engagement with the natural environment. It is also famously used in the Preamble to the United States Constitution, which describes one of the purposes for which the document was establishing the government as to "insure domestic Tranquility".
History The word tranquility dates to the 12th century in the Old French word tranquilite, meaning "peace" or "happiness". The word's sense evolved in the late 14th century, but it maintains its reference to the absence of disturbance and peacefulness.
Benefits Being in a tranquil or "restorative" environment allows people to take respite from the periods of sustained "directed attention" that characterise modern living. In developing their Attention Restoration Theory (ART), Kaplan and Kaplan proposed that people could most effectively recover from cognitive overload by engaging with natural restorative environments, those that are away from daily distractions and that have the extent and mystery that allows the imagination to wander, thereby enabling people to engage effortlessly with their surroundings. According to the theory, the amount of reflection possible within such an environment depends upon the type of cognitive engagement (fascination) that the environment holds. "Soft fascination" is deemed to occur when there is enough interest in the surroundings to hold attention but not so much that it compromises the ability to reflect. It provides a pleasing level of sensory input that involves no cognitive effort other than removing oneself from an overcrowded mental space.
Enjoyment For many, the chance to experience tranquillity is an advantage of the countryside over cities. In a survey by the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 58% of people said that tranquillity was the most positive feature of the countryside.
Health In contrast to "soft fascination", "directed attention" requires a significant amount of cognitive effort. Prolonged periods of sustained mental activity can lead to directed attention fatigue. This can affect performance and bring about negative emotions, irritability, and decreased sensitivity to interpersonal cues. As the incidence of mental illness continues to rise, there is growing evidence that exposure to natural environments can contribute to health and wellbeing. Exposure to nature contributes to physical and psychological wellbeing. One review found evidence of "nature-deficit-disorder" in children, which suggests that the importance of being able to engage with restorative environments applies across a wide age range. Natural tranquil surroundings affect the psychology of people suffering from stress. For example, one study found that stress (as measured by blood pressure, muscle tension, and skin conductance response), induced by showing videos of workplace injuries, improved significantly more quickly if further videos viewed included natural surroundings rather than busy traffic or shopping scenes. Another study demonstrated the benefits of simulating such environments for pain relief during bone marrow aspirate and biopsy.
Economic The presence of tranquil areas helps boost rural tourism. Rural tourism in the U.K. supports 380,000 jobs and contributes £13.8 billion annually to the rural economy, and one survey showed that tranquillity is the main reason why 49% of visitors are attracted to the countryside.
Research Natural settings that effortlessly engage our attention are associated with soft fascination and with the analysis of tranquillity discussed above. One study attempted to distinguish empirically between the constructs of tranquillity and preference as affective qualities of natural environments. Motivated by ART, from which they took tranquillity as a reasonable term to describe soft fascination, they produced definitions for each component. Tranquillity they defined as "how much you think this setting is a quiet, peaceful place, a good place to get away from everyday life", and preference as "how much you like this setting for whatever reason". Subjects were asked to score the following visual settings: mountains, deserts, fields / forests, and waterscapes against those two target variables (tranquillity and preference) and four descriptor variables: mistiness, unstructured openness, focus, and surface calmness. Tranquillity and preference were positively correlated across all settings with tranquillity scoring higher ratings in the field / forest, waterscape, and mountain categories, whilst rushing water had the highest rating in the preference category. Analysis of the results identified three physical features that help explain the apparent split between tranquillity and preference: mistiness, unstructured openness (how open the scene is and how difficult it is to establish a sense of depth or distance), and surface calmness. Mistiness and unstructured openness tended to depress preference relative to tranquillity whilst surface calmness tended to enhance it. A follow-up study included deserts and waterscapes in the setting types. Another study investigated the relationship between tranquillity and danger in urban and rural settings. The key results were 1) that "setting care", which relates to how safe we feel in a particular setting, is more salient for judgments of danger in urban settings than natural ones, and 2) that openness was a significant predictor of danger but not of tranquillity. The authors concluded that tranquillity and danger should not be viewed as polar opposites, but, like preference and tranquillity, as distinct constructs.
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