Research interests

• visual perception
• perception of nature
• aesthetics and preferences
• image properties of natural scenes
• effects of nature (images) on human well-being
• attitudes in the context of nature and the environment

Publications

(last updated June 6, 2024)

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1156-5392

*shared first-authorship

Menzel, C. (preprint). Facing urbanization: Hypothesizing an association between residential green and facial appearance. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8b2n7

Trani, L., Menzel, C., & Loy, L. S. (preprint). Travel the World to Feel Part of It? The Relations Between Long-Term Stays Abroad, Global Identity, and Nature Connectedness. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/cwhd5

de Bell*, S., Alejandre*, J. C., Menzel*, C., Sousa-Silva, R., Straka, T. M., Berzborn, S., Bürck-Gemassmer, M., Dallimer, M., Dayson, C., Fisher, J. C., Haywood, A., Herrmann, A., Immich, G., Keßler, C. S., Köhler, K., Lynch, M., Marx, V., Michalsen, A., Mudu, P., … Bonn, A. (2024). Nature-based social prescribing programmes: Opportunities, challenges, and facilitators for implementation. Environment International, 108801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2024.108801

Wullenkord, M. C., Johansson, M., Loy, L. S., Menzel, C., & Reese, G. (2024). Go out or stress out? Exploring nature connectedness and cumulative stressors as resilience and vulnerability factors in different manifestations of climate anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 95, 102278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102278

Menzel, C., Gessler, M., Hoffmann, S. S. C., & Kenst, S. (2024). Knowing and experiencing the benefits: Factors influencing restoration evoked by nature photographs. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 96, 102322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102322

Menzel, C., Heiden, L. von der, Tretau, I., & Wissel, P. (2024). Wasting the Restorative Potential: Influences of Plastic and Biowaste on Psychological Restoration After Real, Virtual, and Imagined Walks. Global Environmental Psychology, 2, 1–33. https://doi.org/10.5964/gep.11463

Methner, N., Dahme, B., & Menzel, C. (2023). The “replication crisis” and trust in psychological science: How reforms shape public trust in psychology. Social Psychological Bulletin, 18, e9665. https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.9665

Walker, T. R., Baechler, B. R., Markley, L., Grünzner, M., Akuoko, I. S. G., Bowyer, C., Menzel, C., Muntaha, S. T., Macdonald, A., Allen, D., & Cowan, E. (2023). PLASTIC PULSE OF THE PUBLIC – A review of survey-based research on how people use plastic. Cambridge Prisms: Plastics, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1017/plc.2023.8

Kube, T., Wullenkord, M., Rozenkrantz, L., Kramer, P., Lieb, S., & Menzel, C. (2024). How people update their beliefs about climate change: An experimental investigation of the optimistic update bias and how to reduce it. Political Psychology, 45(1), 175–192. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12920

Reese, G., Mehner, M., Nelke, I., Stahlberg, J., & Menzel, C. (2022). Into the wild… or not: Virtual nature experiences benefit well-being regardless of human-made structures in nature. Frontiers in Virtual Reality. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.952073 

Menzel, C. (2022). Naturerfahrungen—Was sie für uns als Individuum und die Gesellschaft bedeuten. In K. van Bronswijk & C. Hausmann (Eds.), Climate Emotions. Klimakrise und psychische Gesundheit. Psychosozial-Verlag. https://www.psychosozial-verlag.de/3168 (invited contribution)

Menzel, C., & Reese, G. (2022). Seeing nature from low to high levels: Mechanisms underlying the restorative effects of viewing nature images. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81, 101804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101804

Reese, G., Stahlberg, J., & Menzel, C. (2022). Digital shinrin-yoku: Do nature experiences in virtual reality reduce stress and increase well-being as strongly as similar experiences in a physical forest? Virtual Reality. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-022-00631-9

Menzel, C., Loy, L. S., Reese, G., & Schnepf, J. (2022). Response to Schradin (2021): Egoism alone does not explain climate inaction. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 37(1), 16-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.10.005

Menzel, C., Kovács, G., Hayn-Leichsenring, G. U., & Redies, C. (2022). Is artistic composition in abstract art detected automatically? pp. 102-106 in A. Chatterjee & E. Cardillo (Eds.), Neuroaesthetics in Focus. Oxford University Press.

Menzel, C., Brom, J., & Heidbreder, L. M. (2021). Explicitly and Implicitly Measured Valence and Risk Attitudes Towards Plastic Packaging, Plastic Waste, and Microplastic in a German Sample. Sustainable Production and Consumption, S2352550921002517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.08.016

Menzel, C., & Reese, G. (2021). Implicit associations with nature and urban environments: Effects of lower-level processed image properties. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.591403

Reese, G., Kohler, E., & Menzel, C. (2021). Restore or Get Restored: The Effect of Control on Stress Reduction and Restoration in Virtual Nature Settings. Sustainability, 13(4), 1995. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041995

Menzel, C., Dennenmoser, F., & Reese, G. (2020). Feeling Stressed and Ugly? Leave the City and Visit Nature! An Experiment on Self-and Other-Perceived Stress and Attractiveness Levels. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(22), 8519. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228519

Reese, G., Hamann, K. R. S., Heidbreder, L. M., Loy, L., Menzel, C., Neubert, S., Tröger, J., & Wullenkord, M. C. (2020). SARS-Cov-2 and environmental protection: A collective psychology agenda for environmental psychology research. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 101444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101444

Menzel, C., & Heidbreder, L. M. (2020). 360° Plastik in Sicht! Wie kann uns eine Kurskorrektur beim Plastikkonsum gelingen? In-Mind, 2020(2). https://de.in-mind.org/article/360deg-plastik-in-sicht-wie-kann-uns-eine-kurskorrektur-beim-plastikkonsum-gelingen

Reese, G., & Menzel, C. (2020). Klimawandel und psychische Gesundheit – Handeln, nicht hadern! Public Health Forum, 28(1), 68–71. https://doi.org/10.1515/pubhef-2019-0120

Heidbreder, L. M., Bablok, I., Drews, S., & Menzel, C. (2019). Tackling the plastic problem: A review on perceptions, behaviors, and interventions. Science of The Total Environment, 668, 1077–1093. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.437

Schwabe, K., Menzel, C., Mullin, C., Wagemans, J., & Redies, C. (2018). Gist Perception of Image Composition in Abstract Artworks. i-Perception, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669518780797

Reese, G., Hamann, K. R. S., Menzel, C., & Drews, S. (2018). Soziale Identität und nachhaltiges Verhalten. In C. T. Schmitt & E. Bamberg (Eds.), Psychologie und Nachhaltigkeit: Konzeptionelle Grundlagen, Anwendungsbeispiele und Zukunftsperspektiven (1st ed., pp. 47–54). Wiesbaden: Springer.

Menzel, C., Redies, C., & Hayn-Leichsenring, G. U. (2018). Low-level image properties in facial expressions. Acta Psychologica, 188, 74–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.05.012

Menzel, C., Kovács, G., Amado, C., Hayn-Leichsenring, G. U., & Redies, C. (2018). Visual mismatch negativity indicates automatic, task-independent detection of artistic image composition in abstract artworks. Biological Psychology, 136, 76–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.05.005

Menzel, C., Hayn-Leichsenring, G. U., Redies, C., Németh, K., & Kovács, G. (2017). When noise is beneficial for sensory encoding: Noise adaptation can improve face processing. Brain and Cognition, 117, 73–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2017.06.006

Menzel, C., Hayn-Leichsenring, G. U., Langner, O., Wiese, H., & Redies, C. (2015). Fourier power spectrum characteristics of face photographs: Attractiveness perception depends on low-level image properties. Plos One, 10(4), e0122801. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0122801

Menzel, C., Fowler, A., Tennie, C., & Call, J. (2013). Leaf Surface Roughness Elicits Leaf Swallowing Behavior in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Bonobos (P. paniscus), but not in Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) or Orangutans (Pongo abelii). International Journal of Primatology, 34(3), 533–553. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-013-9679-7

Selected Conference Presentations

Talks

Menzel, Schreiner, Reese. “Preference and restoration effects of nature and urban images: The roles of image properties and spatial information”, September 2019, International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Plymouth, UK, and June 2019, Visual Properties Driving Visual Preference Meeting, Liverpool, UK.

Menzel (eingeladen). „Umweltpsychologische Aspekte: Was bewegt Menschen zu umwelt- und naturschützendem Handeln?“ [„Approaches by Environmental Psychology: What predicts pro-environmental and nature conservation behaviour?“], October 2019, Herbsttagung der POLLICHIA und der Pfälzischen Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften: „Naturschutz – wie wird er wahrgenommen, wie soll er wahrgenommen werden?“, Bad Dürkheim, Germany.

Menzel (eingeladen). „How much ‘nature’ is in the image? The role of lower-level processed image properties on the processing and evaluation of faces, artworks, and environments”, August 2019, Institute for Computer Graphics, TU Braunschweig, Germany.

Menzel, Schwabe, Amado, Hayn-Leichsenring, Mullin, Wagemans, Kovács, Redies. “Artistic composition in abstract images can be detected fast and automatically”, The Visual Science of Art Conference (VSAC), August 2018, Trieste, Italy.

Menzel, Reese. “The role of visual processing on the restorative effects of nature (images)”. 25^th International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS) Conference, July 2018, Rome, Italy.

Menzel, Hayn-Leichsenring, Redies, Németh, Kovács. "Noise can be good: Noise adaptation affects the neural correlates of face processing", 11. Person Perception Research Unit Workshop "Human Communication: From Person Perception to Social Action", April 2015, Jena, Deutschland.

Menzel, Hayn-Leichsenring, Langner, Redies. "Calculating beauty? The higher-order image statistics of faces", 56. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, April 2014, Gießen, Deutschland.

Menzel, Fowler, Tennie, Call. "Leaf swallowing behavior in captive great apes: Rough surfaced leaves elicit leaf swallowing in naïve chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus)", IX. Göttinger Freilandtage "The Health-Sociality-Fitness Link", Dezember 2013, Göttingen, Deutschland.

Menzel & Hayn-Leichsenring. "'Beauty = -2 ?' The Higher-Order Image Statistics of Facial Attractiveness and Age", 8. Person Perception Research Unit Workshop "Foundations of Person Perception: Trends in Cognition and Neuroscience", Oktober 2013, Jena, Deutschland.

Poster

Menzel, Redies, Hayn-Leichsenring. "Perceived emotional valence of faces is affected by the spectral slope but not the brightness of the image", 39. European Conference on Visual Perception, August 2016, Barcelona, Spanien.

Menzel, Hayn-Leichsenring, Redies, Kovács. "Noise can be good: Visual adaptation to noise with different Fourier power spectrum characteristics affects the electrophysiological correlates of face processing", 15. Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Mai 2015, St. Pete Beach, Florida, USA.

Menzel, Langner, Redies, Hayn-Leichsenring. "Happy is complex and neutral is bright: Statistical image properties of face photographs showing different emotions", 37. European Conference on Visual Perception, August 2014, Belgrad, Serbien.

Menzel, Hayn-Leichsenring, Langner, Redies. "Adjust the ratio of fine detail and coarse structure until you like the image!", 9. Person Perception Research Unit Workshop "From cortical areas to social functions", April 2014, Jena, Deutschland.

Menzel, Redies, Langner, Hayn-Leichsenring. "Not only the face matters: Influence of random noise backgrounds with different statistical properties on face attractiveness", 36. European Conference on Visual Perception, August 2013, Bremen, Deutschland.

Menzel, Fowler, Tennie, Call. "Leaf swallowing behaviour in captive great apes", 2^nd Transfer of Knowledge Conference of Comparative Cognition ", Mai 2011, Prag, Tschechien.

Selected media coverage

Interview Planet Wissen (April 2023): https://www.planet-wissen.de/sendungen/sendung-zimmerpflanzen-102.html

Interview im WDR 5 Quarks (Dezember 2020): https://www1.wdr.de/wdr/radio/wdr5/sendungen/quarks/index.html

Interview im Deutschlandfunk Nova "Ab 21" (August 2020): https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/beitrag/psyche-wie-uns-zimmerpflanzen-gluecklich-machen