Latest Blog Posts

Geiger and colleagues investigated the health of people living near the ocean.  They report that they analyzed “data from the Seas, Oceans, and Public Health In Europe (SOPHIE) and Australia (SOPHIA) surveys to. . . . find broad cross-country generalizability that living nearer to the coast and visiting it more often are associated with better self-reported general health. These results suggest that coastal access may be a viable and generalized route to promote public health across Europe and Australia. However, the relationships are not strongest among individuals with low household incomes, thereby challenging. . .  [the idea] that access to coastal environments can buffer income-related health inequalities.”

Sandra Geiger, Mathew White, Sophie Davison, Lei Zhang, Oonagh McMeel, Paula Kellett, and Lora Fleming. 2023. “Coastal Proximity and Visits Are Associated With Better Health But May Not Buffer Health Inequalities.”  Communications Earth and Environment, vol. 4, 166, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00818-1

Shepherd,  Selvey, Earon, and Wiking report on the physical design of homes where people are happy.  They share that they learned via case studies of row house communities in Denmark and in the United Kingdom that “The key drivers to happiness [resident wellbeing]: balancing the private and the communal; personalising the physical layout; sensing nature; experiencing local identity; and engaging in the decision-making process. The five key drivers guided the development of ten spatial and policy recommendations for public and private developers, architects, and communities to help them design happier homes and neighbourhoods. . . . The ten recommendations include: creating spaces for privacy; create semi-private spaces to serve as a link between the private and the public; create possibilities to belong to smaller and larger communities at the same time; bring nature indoors; making green spaces more accessible; maintaining adaptability; creating a shared identity through history, culture or lifestyle; using noise to promote cohesion rather than conflict; making urban facilities easily accessible; and balancing accessibility and safety.”

Gorana Shepherd, Adam Selvey, Ofri Earon, and Meik Wiking.  2022. “Happy Home: Learnings from the Row House Typology,” Healthy City Design 2022 Conference, https://www.salus.global/article-show/happy-home-learnings-from-the-row…

Yekanialibeiglou and colleagues link working in ABW (which they call activity-based offices or ABOs) and enhanced employee creativity.  The researchers learned via “case studies of three ABOs. . . . that privacy, noise level, and a distraction‐free environment were the main factors supporting employees' individual creativity, as were open spaces with zones for different levels of noise and private enclosed spaces. For group creativity, the significance of providing suitable equipment and furniture in ABOs was observed—collaborative and disengaged spaces were found to be the recurring spaces for group creativity.”

S. Yekanialibeiglou, H. Demirkan, and L. Denti. 2021. “Enhancing Creativity in Activity-Based Offices:  A Critical Incident Study of Knowledge Workers.”  Creativity and Innovation Management, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 763-782, https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12464

Zhang and colleagues report on the implications of exercising in different conditions.  They learned that “Physical activity performed in a natural environment, especially among green spaces, is associated with mental health benefits. . . . [study participants] engaged in incremental cycling exercise at a moderate intensity while viewing an image in front of them on a large screen. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups in which the image they viewed was a green tree, an achromatic tree, a formless color green, or a formless achromatic color. . . .  scores in total mood disturbance decreased and scores in the esteem subscale and self-esteem scale increased after cycling while viewing trees. . . . anger decreased in the two green color conditions. . . .  a significant decrease in response times on the attention task [was found] after cycling among participants who viewed the green tree.”

Danxuan Zhang, Xinhong Jin, Luning Wang, and Yahong Jin.  “Form and Color Visual Perception in Green Exercise:  Positive Effects on Attention, Mood, and Self-Esteem.”  Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102028

Sansom reports on research (“Reap What You Sow:  Valuing Workplaces That Grow Good Ideas”) conducted to quantify the value of environmentally responsible design.  He shares that the completed study “demonstrates that an office with greenery and views to the outside could achieve up to a 200-per-cent uplift in wellbeing and environmental value compared with a typical workspace. . . . both qualitative and quantitative methods to monitor participants’ wellbeing and environmental quality during each scenario. Qualitative methods included questionnaires and interviews, while sensors and wearable technology were used to collect quantitative data on air quality, heart rate, steps, sleep quality, noise level, and EEG (brain waves).” The research Sansome reports on was conducted by PLP Labs, Joyce Chan-Schoof (Loughborough University), Derek Clements-Croome (University of Reading), and the Benholm Group.  Sansome also shares that “Biophilic design features include green walls, pot plants, skylights, water features, and wood furniture. These aspects can add value to the workplace, not only by improving air quality and aesthetics but also by exerting a positive influence on employee health, creativity, productivity and satisfaction.”

Andrew Sansom. 2023. “Monetary Value of Biophilic Design Calculated in Office Wellbeing Study.” https://salus.global/article-show/monetary-value-of-biophilic-design-calculated-in-office-wellbeing-study

Seeing art online may be as useful as viewing it in real life.  Investigators learned that “Brief online art viewing can significantly reduce negative mood and anxiety. . . . we used a Monet interactive art exhibition from Google Arts and Culture to deepen our understanding of the role of pleasure, meaning, and individual differences in the responsiveness to art. . . . This paper provides evidence for the potential of online art interventions—viewing one artwork for a short (1–2 min) period on one's personal internet-enabled device—to have a detectible positive effect on well-being (negative mood, anxiety). . . . We found that there was a possible detrimental effect of viewing art on a smartphone compared to a laptop or desktop computer and that this impact was predicted by lower levels of liking (with potential moderation of the relationship between liking and changes in positive mood by device type).”

MacKenzie Trupp, Giacomo Bignardi, Eva Specker, Edward Vessle, and Matthew Pelowski.  2023. “Who Benefits from Online Art Viewing, and How:  The Role of Pleasure, Meaningfulness, and Trait Aesthetic Responsiveness in Computer-Based Art Interventions for Well-Being.”  Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 145, 107764, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107764

Most of us look at art while hearing something, so Ozger and Choudhury’s study is generally useful.  The research duo report that college students’ moods “were measured via The Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT) after a presentation of Francisco Goya's Black Paintings. There were three randomly assigned groups with a narration about the artist's life and the significance of his paintings (group N), classical music (group M) and both (group NM). Participant's art knowledge was also assessed, as determined by the Vienna Art Interest and Art Knowledge Questionnaire (VAIAK). Group NM reported significantly lower affect scores, indicating more intense emotional experiences as opposed to other two groups. . . . The knowledge and interest scores had no effect on the affect score.”

Can Ozger and Naseem Choudhury. “Wikipedia and Shostakovich Meets Goya: Elaborative Narration and Music Enhance Affect Derived from Art.”  Empirical Studies of the Arts, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/02762374231170260

Van de Perre, Smet, Hanselaer, Dujardin, and Ryckaert evaluated the consequences of different lightscapes in windowless offices. They report that “A two-interval-forced-choice experiment was conducted with the 20 lighting scenes derived from five CCTs [correlated color temperatures] (2500–10 000 K) and four luminances (12–120 cd/m²). The results from 20 observers showed that a higher wall luminance significantly increased brightness. At equal luminances, different CCT values had no significant effect on brightness, consistent with some reports that CCT is not a reliable predictor of brightness when other photometric factors are held constant. Scene preference increased as wall luminance increased to approximately 72 cd/m², but a further increase in wall luminance to 120 cd/m² had no significant impact on preference. As the CCT increased from 2500 K, the preference increased up to approximately 4000 K, followed by a substantial decline from 5715 to 10 000 K.”

L. Van de Perre, K. Smet, P. Hanselaer, M. Dujardin, and W. Ryckaert. “The Effect of Correlated Colour Temperature and Wall Luminance on Spatial Brightness and Scene Preference in a Windowless Office Setup.”  Lighting Research and Technology, , in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/14771535231154479

Kourtesis and teammates evaluated the experience of listening to music virtually.  They report that “participants performed an assessment four times, once before the rides (baseline), and then once after each ride (3 rides). In each ride either Calming, or Joyful, or No Music was played. During each ride, linear and angular accelerations took place to induce cybersickness in the participants. In each assessment, while immersed in VR, the participants evaluated their cybersickness symptomatology and performed a verbal working memory task, a visuospatial working memory task, and a psychomotor task. While responding to the cybersickness questionnaire (3D UI), eye-tracking was conducted to measure reading time and pupillometry. The results showed that Joyful and Calming music substantially decreased the intensity of nausea-related symptoms. However, only Joyful music significantly decreased the overall cybersickness intensity. Importantly, cybersickness was found to decrease verbal working memory performance and pupil size. Also, it significantly decelerated psychomotor (reaction time) and reading abilities.”

Panagiotis Kourtesis, Rayaan Amir, Josie Linnell, Ferran Argelaguet, and Sarah MacPherson.  “Cybersickness, Cognition, and Motor Skills:  The Effects of Music, Gender, and Gaming Experience.” IEEE Xplore, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 2326-2336, DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2023.3247062

Mygind and colleagues evaluated the ramifications of growing up in green neighborhoods.  They determined via data collected for 5-to 12-year olds that “Vegetation cover around the home might support the formation of social skills through higher order reasoning about emotion experience and cause and effect as it relates to other people.” 

Laerke Mygind, Gillian Clark, Felicity Bigelow, Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Luke Knibbs, Suzanne Mavoa, Trine Flensborg-Madsen, Peter Bentzen, Jarrad Lum, and Peter Enticott.  2023. “Green Enrichment for Better Mind Readers?  Residential Nature and Social Brain Function in Childhood.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 88, 102029, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102029