Workplace Water (08-15-16)
Research lead by Thomas indicates that in-office drinking water can have an important effect on employees’ mental and physical health, as well as how they move through their workplace. The team found that the office workers it interviewed “put considerable labor into developing and maintaining complex systems for making choices about what, how and where to eat while working. These systems . . . were then strained and frequently sabotaged by food that simply materialized in the workplace through catered meals and office ‘food altars.’ . . . For many, the consumption of water offered a virtuous solution to the conundrum.” “Food altars” are areas where various foods, often unhealthy, are made available without charge to all. An example of a food altar might be a space near the office administrator’s seat where homemade cookies are artfully arranged on a serving plate or where candy jars are stocked. The researchers found that “when asked about their food and drink choices over the last twenty-four hours . . . people directed us to the water cooler. . . . For employees trapped in a culture of unpredictable abundance, seeking to exercise control . . . only the water bottle constitutes a purely virtuous choice. . . . It [Water] also shaped people’s movement patterns in the office, taking them to a zone away from their desk frequently. . . . Participants valued the act of getting up to get water as well as how drinking water supported them in avoiding certain foods.”
Carolyn Thomas, Jennifer Sedell, Charlotte Biltekoff, and Sara Schaefer. 2016. “Abundance, Control and Water! Water! Water!” Food, Culture, and Society, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 251-271.
Value of Nature Videos: Additional Insights (08-12-16)
Research presented at the American Psychological Association’s (APA) annual conference by Patricia Hasbach provides compelling evidence of the benefits of viewing nature videos. The insights she discusses, drawn from data collected in maximum security prisons, can be applied in settings where people are likely to be highly stressed, have restricted access to nature, etc. A press release from the APA reports that “Inmates who viewed nature videos showed reduced levels of aggression and were less likely to be disciplined than those in similar cellblocks. . . . Hasbach and her colleagues. . . . studied a cellblock at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon that housed 48 inmates. Half were provided nature videos to view during their scheduled indoor recreation time (three to four times per week over the course of a year). Content included images of diverse biomes (e.g., ocean, forest, rivers), aquarium scenes, a fireplace with burning logs, Earth viewed from space and cloud fly-throughs. The other half were not offered the chance to view the videos. ‘Inmate surveys and case study interviews with inmates suggested that negative emotions and behaviors such as aggression, distress, irritability and nervousness were reduced following the viewing of videos and lasted for several hours post-viewing,’ said Hasbach. Prison staff also reported through case study interviews and written surveys that viewing the videos appeared to be a positive way to reduce violent behavior. . . . ‘We found that inmates who watched the nature videos committed 26 percent fewer violent infractions,’ said Hasbach. ‘This is equivalent to 13 fewer violent incidents over the year, a substantial reduction in real world conditions, since nearly all such events result in injuries to inmates or officers.’”
“Can Nature Videos Help Improve Prisoner Behavior?” 2016. Press release, American Psychological Association, http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2016/08/nature-videos-behavior.aspx
Speeding Up Walking (08-10-16)
Want to encourage people to walk more quickly? Apply Van den Bergh, Heuvinck, Schellekens, and Vermeir’s findings to do just that. This research team determined via lab and field experiments that “changes in flooring affect customers’ walking speed. The number, the nature and the relative salience of progress markers [how notable they are] along a walking path towards a physical location communicate goal progress and thus, the motivation to reach a particular destination. . . . customers walk faster when fewer progress markers are placed along the walking path to the goal.” If the markers seen are unrelated to the walkers’ goal, the effect of marker number is not as strong and having fewer markers can actually reduce speed “when the markers are relatively more salient than the goal.”
Bram Van den Bergh, Nico Heuvinck, Gaby Schellekens, and Iris Vermeir. “Altering Speed of Locomotion.” Journal of Consumer Research, in press.
Slow Motion Viewing (08-09-16)
During the research process, videos taken in particular spaces or of the activities of certain user groups are often viewed in slow motion. Research by Caruso, Burns, and Converse indicates that the choice of playback speeds influences conclusions drawn. They report that “Four experiments . . . involving real surveillance footage from a murder or broadcast replays of violent contact in professional football demonstrate that viewing an action in slow motion, compared with regular speed, can cause viewers to perceive an action as more intentional. This slow motion intentionality bias occurred, in part, because slow motion video caused participants to feel like the actor had more time to act, even when they knew how much clock time had actually elapsed. Four additional experiments . . . reveal that allowing viewers to see both regular speed and slow motion replay mitigates [lessens] the bias, but does not eliminate it.”
Eugene Caruso, Zachary Burns, and Benjamin Converse. “Slow Motion Increases Perceived Intent.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, in press.
Countering Blue Light (08-08-16)
New research indicates that the sleep-disturbing effects of seeing the blue light emitted by electronic devices at night can be countered by experiencing bright light during the day. A team lead by Rangtell report that “The use of electronical devices emitting blue light during evening hours has been associated with sleep disturbances in humans, possibly due to the blue light-mediated suppression of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. . . . Following a constant bright light exposure over 6.5 hours (approximately 569 lux), . . . participants . . . read a novel either on a tablet or as physical book for 2 hours (21:00-23:00). . . . About one week later, experiments were repeated yet participants who had read the novel on a tablet in the first experimental session continued reading the same novel in the physical book, and vice versa. . . . There were no differences in sleep parameters and pre-sleep saliva melatonin levels between the tablet reading and physical book reading conditions.”
Frida Rangtell, Emelie Ekstrand, Linnea Rapp, Anna Lagermalm, Lisanne Liethof, and 5 others. “Two Hours of Evening Reading on a Self-Luminous Tablet Vs. Reading a Physical Book Does Not Alter Sleep After Daytime Bright Light Exposure.” Sleep Medicine, in press.
Zoning Playgrounds and Play (08-05-16)
Organizing grade school playgrounds into different activity areas has been linked to increases in physical activity among students. Researchers have learned that “zones with specific games can improve physical activity, improving a child’s chance of engaging in the recommended 60 minutes of ‘play per day,’ an effort endorsed by many health organizations. . . . Researchers found that average physical activity increased by 10 percent and children averaged 175 more steps on a zoned playground compared to a traditional playground. . . . Zoning a playground involves dividing the existing recess area into separate ‘zones.’ Each zone has a specific activity associated with it, and traditional recess games such as basketball and kickball are reworked [by school personnel] to maximize physical activity” in the newly designated areas. The study reviewing these results, “In the Zone: An Investigation into Physical Activity during Recess on Traditional Versus Zoned Playgrounds,” will be published in The Physical Educator.
“Playground Zoning Increases Physical Activity During Recess.” 2016. Press release, University of Missouri, http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2016/0808-playground-zoning-increases-physical-activity-during-recess/
Color and Image and Response (08-04-16)
How do image content and hue influence our emotional response to what we’re looking at? Kuzinas and colleagues set out to answer this question by showing people photographs of urban and nature scenes, either in their original states or modified to be in grayscale, red, or green: “natural content [images showing nature] elicited more positive and less arousing emotions compared to the urban one [images showing urban places]. Green images were less arousing compared to red ones, and original images [those appearing in their original colors] elicited the most pleasant emotions. Moreover, green was the only hue for which . . . effects of content were observed—the natural content–green color combination elicited more positive emotions compared to the urban content–green color combination.” For each individual image, saturation and brightness in the green and red versions were equivalent. Green versions were created by “green tint applied to grayscale version,” and red ones in the same way, but with red tint.
Arvydas Kuzinas, Nicolas Noiret, Renzo Bianchi, and Eric Laurent. 2016. “The Effects of Image Hue and Semantic Content on Viewer’s Emotional Self-Reports, Pupil Size, Eye Movements, and Skin Conductance Response.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, vol. 10, no. 3. Pp. 360-371.
Accepting Automation (08-03-16)
Automation is becoming more prevalent in our world, but do we trust it? How can design be used to foster human’s faith in machines? De Visser and his team share that “Some researchers propose that people apply the same social norms to computers as they do to humans. . . . In contrast, theories of human–automation interaction postulate that humans respond to machines in unique and specific ways. We believe that anthropomorphism—the degree to which an agent [machine] exhibits human characteristics—is the critical variable that may resolve this apparent contradiction across the formation, violation, and repair stages of trust. Three experiments were designed to examine these opposing viewpoints by varying the appearance and behavior of automated agents. Participants received advice . . . from a computer, avatar, or human agent. Our results showed . . . that anthropomorphic agents [ones having human characteristics] were associated with . . . a higher resistance to breakdowns in trust.”
Ewart de Visser, Samuel Monfort, Ryan McKendrick, Melissa Smith. Patrick McKnight, Frank Krueger, and Raja Parasuraman. “Almost Human: Anthropomorphism Increases Trust Resilience in Cognitive Agents.” Journal of Experimental Psychology, in press.
Valuing Hospital Amenities (08-01-16)
Hospitals have been adding hotel-like amenities for some time; new research indicates their value to patients. Suess-Raeisinafchi and Modv found that “patients are willing to spend 38 percent [out of pocket] more for a hospital room if it has the right kind of hotel-quality upgrades.” Researchers “surveyed about 400 people online, all of whom had been in a hospital in the past six months. Participants looked at 40 custom-designed renderings of hospital rooms, containing various combinations of hotel amenities.” Amenities investigated included “interior design, health care service, and food options.” The amenity with the most impact on room preference was “interior design. Participants preferred hospital rooms that had an updated, modern look, like an accent wall or wood-laminate floor. Second was hospitality-trained staff, and third was the technology available, like a high-quality flat-screen TV. . . . [Suess-Raeisinafchi] notes that this study builds on a body of research showing that hotel-like rooms and hospitality-trained staff in hospitals can actually improve patient outcomes. Design choices like large, sunny windows, views of nature or gardens, or even art of nature scenes have been shown to reduce patient stress and pain, according to a 2008 literature review by Roger Ulrich. . . . and colleagues.” Although overall those surveyed were willing to pay 38% more out of pocket for a room with hotel-like amenities than for a standard room, “there was also a split between what ‘less healthy’ and ‘more healthy’ patients would pay. ‘Less healthy’ survey participants, who had spent more time in the hospital and rated their own physical and mental health lower than a ‘more healthy’ group, were willing to pay 44 percent more for a hotel-like room, compared to only 31 percent more for the ‘more healthy’ group.”
Caitlin Bird. 2016. “Checking Into Hotel Hospital.” Press release, Boston University, http://www.bu.edu/research/articles/luxury-hospital-rooms/.
Working Without Assigned Desks (07-29-16)
Kim and his team investigated the experiences of people working without a space at their corporate offices that they could claim as their own on an ongoing basis. The researchers report that “It is clear that the main driver for desk sharing practices is the tangible economic benefits guaranteed by reducing the amount of office space per person. . . . This paper draws on a database from Australian building occupant survey to investigate how desk arrangements (whether or not one has a pre-allocated desk) can affect occupant satisfaction, self-reported productivity or health at workplaces. Our statistical model indicates a fall in occupant self-assessed productivity as spatial factors (such as the office layout allowing easiness of interaction with colleagues, the ability to adjust/personalise workspace, and the amount of storage space provided) [are] below occupant expectations. Analysis of the results also show that the association of spatial factors with occupants' self-assessed productivity . . . was more pronounced among those in non-territorial workplaces [those without assigned desks], compared to those who are assigned with a pre-allocated desk.”
Jungsoo Kim, Christina Candido, Leena Thomas, and Richard de Dear. 2016. “Desk Ownership in the Workplace: The Effect of Non-Territorial Working on Employee Workplace Satisfaction, Perceived Productivity and Health.” Building and Environment, vol. 103, pp. 203-214
Heat Resilience as a Design Objective (07-28-16)
The temperatures people will experience in outdoor spaces should have a significant effect on design decisions. Sharifi, Sivam and Boland report that “During summer heatwaves, heat load exacerbates in urban heat islands (especially in hot climates) and threatens public life in cities. . . . Heat resilience is . . . the ability of the space to support its normal activities when experiencing out-of-comfort temperatures.” The researchers studied “the links between urban microclimates, outdoor thermal discomfort and public life. . . Results indicate that necessary and optional activities start to decline after the apparent temperature reaches the threshold of 28 °C–32 °C, while activities in public spaces with more urban greenery show higher resilience to heat stress. . . . [findings support] heat resilience as a quality indicator in public space and . . . the application of urban greenery to make urban settings more resilient to heat stress.”
Ehsan Sharifi, Alpana Sivam, and John Boland. 2016. “Resilience to Heat in Public Space: A Case Study of Adelaide, South Australia.” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, vol. 59, no. 10, pp. 1833-1854.
Value of Green Certification (07-27-17)
How much is green certification worth? Chopra and Wu studied companies in the computer and electronics industry; “They paired each company [in their study that had undertaken eco-friendly practices] with a control firm that did not initiate eco-friendly practices but was similar across a variety of factors, including its geographical location, size, sales, and assets. . . . Companies that engaged in eco-activities generally fell into one of two buckets: those that engaged in activities that could be performed independently and those that engaged in activities that required collaboration with other companies. . . . Among companies that engaged in eco-activities, a subset also followed the directives of, and received certification from, a standard-setting organization like the U.S. Green Building Council, which offers the popular LEED certification. . . . Companies that obtained a certification had substantially better operating income, gross profit, and revenue than the control companies they were compared against—more than compensating for the higher costs they faced. Overall, these companies fared best of all relative to their controls who undertook no environmental initiatives.
“Can Going Big on Eco-Friendly Practices Really Pay Off?” 2016. Kellogg Insight, http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/can-going-big-on-eco-fri...?
Satisfaction With Cities (07-26-16)
People of different ages assess cities using different criteria. Hogan and his team “hypothesised that citizens’ ratings of their city along dimensions of performance (e.g., basic – usually government – services related to education, healthcare, social services, and policing) and place (e.g., the beauty of the city and a built environment that provides access to cultural, sport, park, transport, and shopping amenities) would be significant predictors of happiness but that the nature of these effects would change over the lifespan.” Collecting data via a survey from 5,000 people, 25-85 years old residing in Berlin, Paris, London, New York, and Toronto, the team found that “the happiness of younger residents is a function of having easy access to cultural, shopping, transport, parks and sport amenities and the attractiveness of their cities (i.e. place variables). The happiness of older residents is associated more with the provision of quality governmental services (i.e., performance variables). . . . in order to be all things to all people, cities should emphasize quality services (e.g., good policing, schools, healthcare access), beauty and character, and provide easy access to transport amenities and cultural and recreational opportunities.”
Michael Hogan, Kevin Leyden, Ronan Conway, Abraham Goldberg, Deirdre Walsh, and Phoebe McKenna-Plumley. 2016. “Happiness and Health Across the Lifespan in Five Major Cities: The Impact of Place and Government Performance.” Social Science and Medicine, vol. 162, pp. 168-176.
Background Noise and Learning (07-25-16)
Background noise influences toddlers’ ability to learn. McMillan and Saffran studied two sets of toddlers (22-24 months old and 28-30 months old) who were being taught new words in a space where other people could be heard speaking. Both the older and younger children “successfully learned novel label–object pairings when target speech was 10 dB louder than background speech but not when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was 5 dB [meaning when the teacher’s voice was only 5 decibels louder than background speech].
Brianna McMillan and Jenny Saffran. “Learning in Complex Environments: The Effects of Background Speech on Early Word Learning.” Child Development, in press.
Consequences of Being Observed (07-20-16)
Doing something in view of others has important consequences. As Steinmetz and team report, “people, when observed, perceive their actions as more substantial because they add the audience’s perspective to their own perspective. . . participants who were observed while eating . . . or learned they were observed after eating . . . recalled eating a larger portion than unobserved participants.” In short, “The presence of others magnified both desirable and undesirable actions.” In addition, “observed (vs. unobserved) participants believed they gave both more correct and incorrect answers in a lab task . . . and . . . the larger the audience, the larger the contribution badminton players claimed toward their teams’ successes as well as failures.” Also: “In contrast to actions, inactions are not magnified, because they are unobservable; indeed, observed (vs. unobserved) participants believed they solved more task problems but did not skip more problems.”
Jamina Steinmetz, Qian Xu, Avelet Fishbach, and Ying Zhang. “Being Observed Magnifies Action.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, in press.
Culture and Looking (07-19-16)
Research continues to accumulate indicating that people from different cultures literally look at their world differently. Consistent with previous research lead by Nisbett, Masuda, Ishil and Kimura found via research with people who were European Canadian and Japanese that were asked to look at images that “European Canadians substantially attended to the focal figures longer and more frequently than to the backgrounds, whereas Japanese equally allocated their attention to both the focal figures and the backgrounds.” This finding has repercussions for the sorts of environmental factors that will guide first impressions formed by people from different parts of the world, for example.
Takahiko Masuda, Keiko Ishil and Junko Kimura. 2016. “When Does the Culturally dominant Mode of Attention Appear or Disappear? Comparing Patterns of Eye Movement During the Visual Flicker Task Between European Canadians and Japanese.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 47, no. 7, pp. 997-1014.