Ensuring that environments are designed to cater for those with decreasing orientation, perceptual and mobility skills, is an example of how environments are being changed to become more age and dementia friendly. However, environmental design should directly involve potential users of the environment to ensure that their views are accounted for. Four open-ended questions, focusing on orientation strategies

The theory of supportive design influences healthcare facility design but is under-researched for different cultural groups. This mixed-methods study compared two Indigenous sample populations in Australia to examine the effect of the physical environment in public hospitals and clinics on Indigenous people’s perceptions and experiences of waiting for care. Quantitative survey data (n = 602) measured

Classrooms are noisy, yet little is known about pupils’ subjective reactions to noise. We surveyed 112 children between 8.70 and 11.38 years of age and extracted five dimensions in their reactions to noise by factorial analyses: (1) perceived classroom loudness, (2) hearing difficulties, (3) attention capture, (4) interference, (5) annoyance from noise. Structural Equation Models were run to better

William Whyte originally hypothesized that the presence of people in a public space would attract more people. Contemporary planners now refer to “sticky streets” as places where pedestrians are compelled to linger and enjoy vibrant public life. We test the hypothesis that adding users to a public space will attract more people using an experimental design with confederates to add pedestrian movement

A substantial body of research provides evidence for the role of parents in transferring pro-environmental attitudes, values, and behaviors to their children. However, little research has focused on children’s active attempts to influence parents’ pro-environmental behavior. In a survey involving 508 Lithuanian families, we examined the bidirectional influences of parents’ and adolescents’ information-induced

Previous research suggests that meditation, a mindfulness exercise, could result in increased connectedness to nature and pro-environmental behavior. Exposure to nature also is associated with these outcomes. It was hypothesized that meditation alongside stimuli reminiscent of the natural environment would produce enhanced effects. Participants (N = 97) were randomly assigned to complete a 4-week online

Environmental problems could be reduced if individuals act pro-environmentally. Typically, studies have examined factors explaining pro-environmental behavior among adults, but not among children. As children are the future generations that must meet the targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement, it is important to understand which factors influence their engagement in pro-environmental behaviors

The importance of communication among healthcare providers has been long recognized, and many healthcare organizations are implementing team-based care, with emphasis on staff communication. While previous empirical studies in various settings illustrate the role of built environments in user communication, there is a lack of quantified interpersonal spatial metrics to predict interactions. This study

Few studies have investigated the impact of landscapes on humans’ mental status while they are moving at high speeds, such as driving on the freeway. This study used a simulation system to measure drivers’ mental responses to six different freeway landscapes. Each of the 33 participants completed six different 90-minute simulated driving tasks in a randomly assigned sequence. The six landscape conditions

Few researches have considered fear of crime as a context-specific experience. This article promotes a place-based theoretical framework for studying crime perceptions through presenting app-based and crowdsourcing measures of perception of crime and place as a robust methodological framework. A systematic review of published studies that use crowdsourced or app-based measures to explore perceptions

Urban sociology highlights an important role that a city’s social infrastructure, or “third-places,” play in supporting healthy communities. Informed by social identity theorizing, this study explores when and why older adults engage with third-places and how a sense of wellbeing can be derived from their participation. Focus-group interviews were conducted with a sample of community-dwelling older

Several studies have suggested that people might be less likely to engage in proenvironmental behavior subsequent to their prior engagement in proenvironmental behavior. We have conducted a preregistered replication of one such recent study of within-domain licensing in the area of environmental protection. Our replication was extended with an analysis of self-perception as a potential mediator of

This study examines the environmentally responsible behaviors (ERBs) of undergraduates (n = 575). ERBs were measured in an online survey and the influence of situational context on behavior was explored at two scales: 1) green versus non-green building and 2) building characteristics. The Positive Sustainable Built Environments model was used to analyze three building characteristics: Prime, Permit

A prevailing marketing tactic, called cause-related marketing (CRM), involves donating to a charity contingent on consumer purchases. Building on moral licensing theory, the current research identifies a negative effect of engagement in CRM on consumers’ subsequent pro-environmental behaviors through two studies. Study 1 (N = 100) established that people act in less eco-friendly ways (i.e., consuming

The present study employed a longitudinal survey experiment with American adults to investigate whether cognitive and emotional appraisals of messages about climate change related health risks would mediate the relationships between participants’ individual differences (in political ideology and health) and their perceived harm to self and support for climate change policies. The study found that liberals

Organizations are increasingly adopting non-territorial organizational models with unassigned desks. However, previous research has: (1) shown mixed results regarding the impact of non-territorial working on employees, (2) largely examined non-territorial working in its purest sense without considering the nuanced differences in non-territorial working, and (3) not understood the mechanisms underlying

Extant studies have revealed enhancing effects of scent on performance. The role of scent, and emission method, in the context of performing repetitive tasks over prolonged duration in promoting alertness, vigilance, and memory was examined. Seventy-three participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (no scent, peppermint scent emitted continuously, or peppermint scent emitted intermittently)

Research in environmental psychology has found a positive relationship between place bonds and behaviors related to care and maintenance of place. Although this relationship has been analyzed in natural environments, it has been less frequently studied in urban environments and has yielded contradictory results. The aim of this study is to analyze behavior related to care and conservation of neighborhood

We compared the experience with nature of today’s children with data from the beginning of the 20th century to determine whether we can confirm a loss of experience and contribute to the description of changes in children’s relationship with nature. We used a questionnaire originally published in 1900 for this survey. Results from contemporary participants tested by ANOVA showed no difference in level

Hotter weather is associated with aggressive crime. However, it is not well known if similar relationships apply to online aggression. This study uses anger counts derived from Twitter posts (tweets) and assault counts in New South Wales, Australia, to investigate if they share a similar relationship with temperature, and to determine if online anger is a predictor of assault. Results indicated that

With growing concern for biodiversity loss, conservationists are faced with increased pressure to depict animals in ways that evoke empathy and lead to conservation. In recent years, conservation photographers have called on scientists to assist them in identifying the best ways to depict animals to elicit an emotional response. Collaborating with conservation photographers, we used an original survey

We examine psychological mediating mechanisms to promote ocean health among the U.S. public. Ocean acidification (OA) was chosen as the focus, as experts consider it as important as climate change with the same cause of humanity’s excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, but it is lesser known. Empathy is a multi-dimensional concept that includes cognitive and emotional aspects. Previous literature

We draw on theoretical insights from criminology in using the Walk Score index to analyze walkability’s relationship to spatial crime patterns on Los Angeles city blocks. Results from our first set of negative binomial regression models show that walkability had an especially strong linear effect on robbery rates: a 24% increase in the robbery rate accompanied a 10-point increase in Walk Score on a

While many cancer centers suggest treating pain with medication and nondrug treatment, few include the use of virtual reality (VR) as an alternative for stress and pain relief therapy. The purpose of this research was to determine whether a nature-inspired VR simulation reduced stress and pain levels among patients in a cancer treatment center. Using a repeated measures design, 50 patients attending

Motivation has long been implicated as an antecedent to place attachment among recreationists. Research has framed this association around expectancy theory, suggesting that the realization of preferred modes of experience leads to a positive evaluation of a setting (i.e., attachment). In this study, we tested an alternative hypothesis rooted in self-determination theory, which purported that place

Coastal flooding risks are becoming increasingly important because of the increasing vulnerability of coastal territories and the rise of ocean levels in relation to climate change. Studying the adaptation to these phenomena requires taking into account the coping strategies (problem-focused or emotional-focused coping) implemented by the inhabitants of the exposed territories. A theoretical model

The city of Philadelphia has long been criticized for the amount of litter strewn about its streets. To more fully understand this problem, a recent city initiative, the Clean PHL program, sent out individuals to rate the amount of litter on more than 28,000 blocks across the city. We used multilevel models to analyze these data to identify both address-level and block group–level correlates of increased

We review the methods and findings of experiments that have examined the effects of exposure to simulated natural landscapes on human health and cognitive performance. Keyword searches of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science resulted in the inclusion of 175 experiments in 148 research articles. that were published/in press by December 31, 2018. We report how often landscape features and human factors

This study explored associations between perceived neighborhood walkability and neighborhood-based physical activity (NB-PA) and assessed possible moderation effects of the amount of time spent in the home neighborhood and individual characteristics (i.e., educational level and health-related problems). In 2016 to 2017, 509 Dutch adults, living in the South Limburg area, were included. Context-specific

In the operating room (OR), opaque drapes are hung between the anesthesia workstation and the operating table. Because OR teams are transient and hierarchical, social order is continuously being negotiated around this partition. We hypothesized that drape transparency, a tool for reimagining the physical and symbolic confines of the OR, might alter behavior. Due to the proximity of anesthesia providers

Increasing droughts and water shortages are intensifying the need for residential water conservation. We identify and classify 24 water conservation studies using the information–motivation–behavioral skills (IMB) model by categorizing interventions based on content and water conservation effectiveness. This synthesis revealed several insights. First, all of the interventions used information, motivation

Although the sharing economy is rapidly growing, it is still in its infancy. One of the key challenges is successfully expanding the number of users joining the sharing economy. Our research empirically assesses which organizational form is most successful in attracting new consumers to the sharing organizations that are co-owned by their users. The structure and scope of these sharing communities

Expedition teams operating in Polar environments are exposed to a range of environmental, psychological, and social challenges. How a person responds to these demands has implications for their physical and psychological health. In this study, we examined relations between the daily events encountered, coping strategies used, and markers of physical and psychological health in a team of six British

Diffusion of pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) is known to be influenced by the perceived social status of those behaviors, but little is known about what gives PEBs social status. A sample of Australian residents (N = 601) were asked to rate the social status of 16 PEBs and report their self and public environmental identities. Environmental identities accounted for 18% to 19% of the variance in

Attention restoration theory (ART) predicts that top-down processing during everyday activities can cause attentional fatigue and that bottom-up processing that occurs when people experience nature will be restorative. This study exposed participants to three different conditions using a repeated measures design: a control condition during which participants walked on a typical treadmill; a nature

This study aimed to investigate the effects of Person-Environment Fit on trajectories of cognitive function. Data came from the Health Retirement Study (1998-2010), focusing on those aged 65 and above who had at least one limitation in activities of daily living. Using longitudinal mixed-effect modeling, we analyzed the effects of living in supportive home environments on trajectories of cognitive

Extensive evidence has documented the moderating role of design attributes in crowding; yet, the effect of public transportation design on travel experience has been overlooked. We conducted a within-design experimental study aimed to estimate the buffering role of design resources in both subjective experience (crowding, pleasantness, stimulation, and dominance) and behavioral responses (patterns

Recent research suggests that mindfulness may foster sustainable consumption behavior through the reduction of the so-called attitude–behavior gap, or by weakening material values while increasing subjective well-being. The current controlled longitudinal study tested these propositions by employing a sustainability-adapted mindfulness-based intervention (sMBI) to two different samples (n = 60 university

Offices are evolving rapidly to facilitate organizational cost reductions and to better support contemporary working practices. We investigate relationships between the design of contemporary offices (physical proximity and breakout areas) and autonomy in predicting individual outcomes (ease of communication, job satisfaction, and well-being). We extend Social Interference Theory to include features

This study investigates the relationship between weather and crime in Barranquilla, Colombia, a city in the Torrid Zone, which in contrast to more commonly studied temperate zones is hot and humid year-round. Our analysis is based on daily variations in four weather variables (temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and wind speed) and two indicators of criminal activity, namely, homicides and

Shifts toward naturalistic zoo enclosures in the last decades of the 20th century prompted research findings that perceptions of animals were influenced by their environment. The current study replicated and expanded upon that prior work. University students (n = 1,253) viewed animals in wild, naturalistic, front cage bar, or back cage bar settings with a name-only control and rated each animal on

Place attachment is the development of a psychological and emotional bond between an individual and their environmental setting. While positive experiences in the residential neighborhood are central to ongoing develop-ment of people–place bonds, whether negative experiences erode place attachment remains unknown. In this study, we explore the relationship between crime victimization, social ties,

An intervention, which used elements of the theory of planned behavior, was developed and tested in a randomized control trial (RCT) involving households in the city of London, Ontario, Canada. A bespoke methodology involving the direct collection and measurement of food waste within curbside garbage samples of control (n = 58) and treatment households (n = 54) was used to evaluate the effectiveness

Contact with nature is widely considered to ameliorate psychological stress, but the empirical support for a causal link is limited. We conducted a systematic review to synthesize and critically assess the evidence. Six electronic databases were searched. Twenty-six studies evaluated the difference between the effect of natural environments and that of a suitable control on the acute psychophysiological

We investigated the possible restorative effects of exposure to awe-evoking scenes (natural/built) compared with mundane scenes (natural/built). A careful selection of visual stimuli was carried out, followed by an experiment with 250 participants. We included a mentally fatigued condition and a not mentally fatigued condition (i.e., control group). Participants’ performance on an attentional task

The present study adopted a quasi-experimental mixed method approach to investigate the influence of an improved school ground on children’s academic performance. In total, 123 children from two (intervention and control) primary schools in Bangladesh participated. In the intervention school, a barren school ground was redesigned with several behavior settings (e.g., gardens and amphitheater) for teaching

The main aim of the present study was to explore the impact of three stimulus-related variables—that is, ordinal position of viewing, relative size of exhibit objects, and proximity to larger sized objects—on visitor attention and interest in exhibitions. A field experiment that utilized timing and tracking through unobtrusive observation, as well as a questionnaire, was conducted with 120 participants

Some, but not all, bird sounds are associated with perceptions of restoration from stress and cognitive fatigue. The perceptual properties that might underpin these differences are understudied. In this online study, ratings of perceived restorative potential (PRP) and aesthetic properties of 50 bird sounds were provided by 174 residents of the United Kingdom. These were merged with data on objectively

We investigated the extent to which the amount of sky and other contents affect expectations that window views will support psychological restoration in an urban context. The study involved 102 digital view images across which the amount of sky and other contents were varied systematically through manipulation of variables relevant to urban densification. University students (N = 212) rated images

Knowledge of the relationships among psychological constructs such as values and motivations that influence proenvironmental behavior provides public land management agencies with guidance on how to minimize stakeholder impacts on the environment. A rich body of research has demonstrated that values form a tripartite structure underlying environmental concern, encompassing biospheric, egoistic, and

Dialectical beliefs emphasize constant change, tolerance of contradiction, and holistic perception. This research examined the relationship between dialectical beliefs and proenvironmental behaviors. Study 1a showed that stronger dialectical beliefs were associated with fewer proenvironmental behaviors among Chinese participants; this result was replicated in Study 1b. To examine the negative relationship

We investigated the effects of recreational exposure to the natural environment on mood and psychophysiological responses to stress. We hypothesized that walking in nature has restorative effects over and above the effects of exposure to nature scenes (viewing nature on TV) or physical exercise alone (walking on a treadmill in a gym) and that these effects are greater when participants were expected

The present article examines the transmission of energy-saving behaviors in the family on two levels. We investigated the extent to which energy-saving performance differed between adolescents in relation to parental behavior on an aggregated level but also across single behaviors within adolescents. Furthermore, we investigated whether social context (e.g., private areas in a household) interfered

There is growing concern that the built forms resulting from conventional suburban design may be adversely affecting the social well-being, sense of community, and psychological health of its residents. This study tested the premise that suburban neighborhood developments (n = 36) designed in accordance with a New Urbanist inspired planning policy in Perth, Western Australia, improved residents’ (n

We compared geographic information system (GIS)- and Census-based approaches for measuring the physical and social neighborhood environment at the census tract-level versus and audit approach on associations with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Data were used from the 2012-2014 Women and Their Children's Health (WaTCH) Study (n=940). Generalized linear

This cross-sectional study investigated whether physical activity, social cohesion, and loneliness mediate the association between time spent visiting green spaces and perceived mental health and vitality. Questionnaire data were collected from 3,948 residents from 124 neighborhoods across four European cities. Multilevel linear regression analysis revealed positive, but weak, associations between

Eco-driving can be an effective strategy to save fuel and reduce CO2 emissions on the road. In the current study, we reason that personal norms are important predictors of eco-driving, and that they are activated when people are aware of environmental problems caused by behavior (problem awareness) and believe that they can contribute to the solution of the problem by changing behavior (outcome efficacy)

In two studies, we took a prospect-refuge based perspective to investigate how lighting and other physical attributes (i.e., prospect, concealment, and entrapment) affect people's judgments of the safety of urban streets during nighttime. Both studies complement existing research, which predominantly use factorial designs, with more ecologically valid correlational research using a large and representative

Virtual reality (VR) distraction has become increasingly available in health care contexts and is used in acute pain management. However, there has been no systematic exploration of the importance of the content of VR environments. Two studies tested how interacting with nature VR influenced experienced and recollected pain after 1 week. Study 1 (n = 85) used a laboratory pain task (cold pressor),

Compensatory green beliefs (CGBs) reflect the idea that a pro-environmental behavior (e.g., recycling) can off-set the negative effects of an environmentally detrimental behavior (e.g., driving). It is thought that CGBs might help explain why people act in ways that appear to contradict their pro-environmental intentions, and inconsistently engage in pro-environmental behaviors. The present study sought