Case Study: Moving to An Activity-Based Office (03-14-18)
Rolfo and her colleagues studied the experiences of a company moving from an open-plan to an activity-based workplace. They state that “Many companies move from open-plan offices (OPO) to activity-based workplaces (ABWs). . . . The aim of this study was to explore . . . a company’s relocation from an OPO to an ABW. . . . Results showed that satisfaction with auditory privacy, background noise, air quality, outdoor view and aesthetics increased significantly after relocation. Negative outcomes, such as lack of communication within teams, were perceived as being due to the high people-to-workstation ratio and lack of rules. Overall satisfaction with the physical work environment increased in the ABW compared to the OPO. Perceived performance did not change significantly.” Data were collected at “a large Swedish insurance company that relocated two departments from an OPO to an ABW.”
Linda Rolfo, Jorgen Eklund, and Helena Jahncke. 2017. “Perceptions of Performance and Satisfaction After Relocation to an Activity-Based Office.” Ergonomics, vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 644-657, https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2017.1398844
Order and Evaluation (03-13-18)
The order in which assessments are made influences the resulting evaluations. O’Connor and Cheema share that “Sequential evaluation is the hallmark of fair review: The same raters assess the merits of applicants, athletes, art, and more using standard criteria. We investigated one important potential contaminant in such ubiquitous decisions: Evaluations become more positive when conducted later in a sequence. In four studies, (a) judges’ ratings of professional dance competitors rose across 20 seasons of a popular television series, (b) university professors gave higher grades when the same course was offered multiple times, and (c) in an experimental test of our hypotheses, evaluations of randomly ordered short stories became more positive over a 2-week sequence.” This effect seems to arise because as more evaluations are made, each is easier to complete and more positive ratings result. Designers and their clients often need to make a series of evaluations over time; O’Connor and Cheema’s insights lead to more effective assessments of data gathered.
Kieran O’Connor and Amar Cheema. “Do Evaluations Rise With Experience?” Psychological Science, in press.
Effects of Thinking About Spaces (03-12-18)
Corcoran and her colleagues learned that thinking about spaces influences how we assess our future. They report that they measured “self-reported psychological mechanisms thought to underpin mental health and well-being before and after participants briefly contemplated urban/rural or desirable/undesirable residential images. Our findings demonstrate that even brief contemplation of places change how we consider our futures and that places deemed relatively undesirable appear to promote . . . threat-focused [thinking about the future]. Importantly, these changes were . . . associated with . . . perceived desirability of place.”
Rhiannon Corcoran, Rosie Mansfield, Trina Giokas, Amy Hawkins, Lauren Bamford, and Graham Marshall. 2017. “Place Change Minds: Exploring the Psychology of Urbanicity Using a Brief Contemplation Method.” Sage Open, DOI: 10.1177/2158244017707004
Music and Exercise (03-08-18)
Research linking listening to music while exercising with spending more time exercising has implications for soundscaping generally. The American College of Cardiology reports that “a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 67th Annual Scientific Session [lead author Waseem Shami] suggests listening to music during a standard cardiac stress test can help extend the time someone is able to perform the test. . . . On average, people who listened to music during the test were able to exercise for almost one minute longer than those who didn’t have tunes playing in their ears.” During the reported study “patients (53 years of age on average) were randomly assigned to either listen to up-tempo music (mostly Latin-inspired music) or have no music playing during their stress tests. . . . Aside from introducing headphones to the test environment, the stress test was conducted as usual in the clinic.” According to Shami, “’After six minutes, you feel like you are running up a mountain, so even being able to go 50 seconds longer means a lot.’”. . . Although the maximum duration for a stress test is 20 minutes, Shami said most healthy people usually last for seven to eight minutes. . . . ‘Our findings reinforce the idea that upbeat music has a synergistic effect in terms of making you want to exercise longer and stick with a daily exercise routine,’ he [Shami] said. “’When doctors are recommending exercise, they might suggest listening to music too.’”
“Music Boosts Exercise Time During Cardiac Stress Testing.” 2018. Press release, American College of Cardiology, http://www.acc.org/about-acc/press-releases/2018/02/27/12/01/music-boost...
Synesthesia: More Insights (03-07-18)
Synesthesia is relatively common, and new research is shedding light on why some people experience it and others don’t. As a recent press release from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics reports, “1 in 25 people have synaesthesia, perceiving the world in unusual ways. An experience with one sense automatically leads to perception in another sense: for example, seeing colours when listening to music. . . . researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and the University of Cambridge. . . . studied families with synaesthesia, and describe genetic changes that might contribute to their differences in sensory experience.” More details on synesthesia, “Some people with synaesthesia may see sounds, while others may taste them or feel them as shapes. This kind of sensory cross-talk comes in many forms, and develops during early childhood.” Simon Fisher is the lead author on the study reporting these findings, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Seeing Sounds: Researchers Uncover Molecular Clues for Synaesthesia.” 2018. Press release, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, http://www.mpi.nl/news/seeing-sounds-researchers-uncover-molecular-clues....
Supporting Creative Thinking (03-06-18)
Breslin studied links between types of work breaks and creativity. What he learned can be applied by designers as they work (for example, as they brainstorm); Breslin’s findings can also inform the development of spaces that support creative thinking. Breslin “investigates the effect of off-task breaks, where individuals engage in a collective off-task activity, on group creativity.” He found that “When compared to the no‐break case, it is seen that off‐task breaks, in which all individuals participate in the group activity, lead to more original ideas being generated post‐break. On the other hand, individual incubation breaks and self‐organizing group breaks, lead to lower levels of post‐break idea originality when compared with the no‐break case. This research thus highlights the positive benefits of off‐task breaks involving full member participation, on the creative process in groups.”
Dermot Breslin. “Off-Task Social Breaks and Group Creativity.” The Journal of Creative Behavior, in press, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jocb.229
Temperature at Work (03-05-18)
Syndicus, Wiese, and van Treeck studied the implications of workplace temperatures. The researchers collected information “in an office-like environment in one of the three temperature conditions. The comfort condition . . . featured an average air temperature of 24 °C [75 degrees Fahrenheit]. The elevated ambient temperature condition was 28 °C [82 degrees Fahrenheit]. . . Condition three employed an airstream of approximately 0.8 m[eters]/s[econd], intended to compensate for performance decrements at the elevated air temperature (28 °C). . . . Participants in the warm condition were significantly less persistent [on the cognitive task they’d been asked to work on] compared with participants in the control [comfort] and compensation conditions. . . . the airstream seemed to compensate for the higher temperature. Participants’ persistence in the compensation and comfort conditions did not differ.”
Marc Syndicus, Bettina Wiese, and Christoph van Treeck. “Too Hot to Carry On? Disinclination to Persist at a Task in a Warm Office Environment.” Ergonomics, vol. 61, no. 4, pp. 476-481, doi: 10.1080/00140139.2017
We Look at Things That Smell Good (03-02-18)
Want people to look at something? Make it smell good. Rinaldi and her team report that “The prompt recognition of pleasant and unpleasant odors is a crucial regulatory and adaptive need of humans. Reactive answers to unpleasant odors ensure survival in many threatening situations. . . . humans typically respond to environmental stimuli . . . by moving toward positive cues and moving away from negative ones.” Also, “unpleasant odors significantly increasing heart rate.” The Rinaldi group’s research “demonstrates that odor pleasantness selectively shifts human attention in the surrounding space;” people look at the thing that smells good. The test scents used by the researchers were vanilla (pleasant smell) and civet (unpleasant scent).
Luca Rinaldi, Emanuela Maggioni, Nadia Olivero, Angelo Maravita, and Luisa Girelli. “Smelling the Space Around Us: Odor Pleasantness Shifts Visuospatial Attention in Humans.” Emotion, in press, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000335
Flowers ARE Special (03-01-18)
Humans seem to have a very special relationship with flowers and their shapes. Huss and colleagues report that “Since ancient times people have been attracted by flowers and have invested precious energy to cultivate them even though there is no known reward for this costly behavior- in all cultures. . . . we investigated the comparative preference of 150 participants for four visually different flowers. . . . we investigated participants' perceptions of the concept of a generic 'flower' and compared this to a mandala. . . . All four different flowers were equally chosen as first choice and therefore we introduced the generic or universal concept of 'floweriness' that was characterized by enhancing calmness and happiness. On this level, the concept of the flower ranked higher for inducing happiness as compared to a mandala shape. . . . the results . . . point to a central concept of “floweriness” that transcends the specific cultural connotations of specific flowers.”
Efrat Huss, Kfir Yosef, and Michele Zaccai. 2017. “The Meaning of Flowers: A Cultural and Perceptual Exploration of Ornamental Flowers.” The Open Psychology Journal, vol. 10, pp. 140-153, doi: 10.2174/1874350101710010140
Location and Personality (02-27-18)
Wei lead a large team which learned that where we grow up seems to influence our personality as adults. If they assume that many adults continue to live relatively near to where they’re raised, designers can apply this information. Research has linked personality to design preferences, for example, and Research Design Connections regularly reports on links personality – design links. The Wei-directed team “conducted two large-scale studies in two geographically large yet culturally distinct countries: China and the United States. . . . data from 59 Chinese cities . . . revealed that compared with individuals who grew up in regions with less clement temperatures, individuals who grew up in regions with more clement temperatures (that is, closer to 22 °C [72 degrees Fahrenheit]) scored higher on personality factors related to socialization and stability (agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability) and personal growth and plasticity (extraversion and openness to experience). These relationships between temperature clemency and personality factors were replicated in a larger dataset of 12,499 ZIP-code level locations . . . in the United States. . . . As climate change continues across the world, we may also observe . . . changes in human personality.”
Wenqi Wei, Jackson Lu, Adam Galinsky and 23 others. 2017. “Regional Ambient Temperature is Associated with Human Personality.” Nature Human Behavior, vol. 1, pp. 890-895, doi: 10.1038/s41562-017-0240-0
Greenspace and Children’s Brains (02-26-18)
Being raised near greenspaces is good for children’s brains. A research team lead by Dadvand has learned that “Primary schoolchildren who have been raised in homes surrounded by more greenspace tend to present with larger volumes of white and grey matter in certain areas of the brain. Those anatomic differences are in turn associated with beneficial effects on cognitive function.” The study presenting this information was published in Environmental Health Perspectives and data were collected in Barcelona. More on the study: “Lifelong exposure to residential greenspace was estimated using satellite-based information on the children’s addresses from birth up through to the time of the study. Brain anatomy was studied using high-resolution 3D magnetic resonance images (MRI). Working memory and inattentiveness were evaluated with computerized tests.”
“Being Raised in Greener Neighborhoods May Have Beneficial Effects on Brain Development.” 2018. Press release, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, https://ph.ucla.edu/news/press-release/2018/feb/being-raised-greener-neighborhoods-may-have-beneficial-effects-brain
Evaluating Loudness (02-23-18)
Tian, Ding, Teng, Bai, and Poeppel’s research indicates that evaluations of loudness may not be as objective as they seem. The Ding-lead study found that “imagined speech affects subsequent auditory perception, even for a low-level attribute such as loudness.” In everyday language, what the researchers learned is that the “loudness” of our thoughts influences our perceptions of the volume of sound around us; if we perceive those thoughts as louder, perhaps because we imagine we’re speaking more loudly, we believe that the physical environment that surrounds us is quieter. This finding may help explain puzzling design research data, for example.
Xing Tian, Nai Ding, Xiangbin Teng, Fan Bai, and David Poeppel. “Imagined Speech Influences Perceived Loudness of Sound.” Nature Human Behavior, in press, doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0305-8.
Personality and Jobs (02-22-18)
Research by King and colleagues makes personality-based design more reasonable in workplaces and elsewhere. The team found that “Occupations emphasizing people (vs. things) and data (vs. ideas) were more likely to be occupied by extraverted employees; occupations emphasizing things and data were more likely to be held by conscientious individuals.” Research Design Connections reports on links between personality and design, for example, by discussing Susan Cain’s work.
Danielle King, Catherine Ott-Holland, Ann Ryan, Jason Huang, Patrick Wadlington, and Fabian Elizondo. 2017. “Personality Homogeneity in Organizations and Occupations: Considering Similarity Sources.” Journal of Business and Psychology, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 641-653, https://doi.org/10.1007/s.10869-016-9459-4
Density and Communication (02-21-18)
The Consiglio lead team, via a series of studies in lab and field settings, investigated the effects of social density on communication. Social density was defined by the researchers as “the number of people in a given area” and word of mouth as “’informal communications directed at other consumers about the ownership, usage or characteristics of particular goods and services, and their sellers’ (based on a definition by Westbrook, 1987).” The Consiglio group found that “social density increases the likelihood of sharing information with others [online and offline]. . . . sharing information restores perceived control in high-density environments. . . . high- (vs. low-) [social] density settings make consumers experience a loss of perceived control, which, in turn, makes them more likely to engage in word of mouth to restore it.” So, if you want to spread information word of mouth, develop design options that increase social density. As Consiglio, de Angeles, and Costabile state, “Companies might increase the effectiveness of their communication activity by sending targeted information to consumers who are in high-[social] density environments, because these consumers might be particularly inclined to share this information either online or offline.”
Irene Consiglio, Matteo de Angelis, and Michelle Costabile. “The Effect of Social Density on Word of Mouth.” Journal of Consumer Research, in press.
Mistakes and Value (02-20-18)
Reich, Kupor, and Smith learned that items made by mistake may have higher value than those created intentionally. Their work sheds light on creating desirable products. The researchers found that “Mistakes are often undesirable and frequently result in negative inferences about the person or company that made the mistake. Consequently, research suggests that information about mistakes is rarely shared with consumers. However, we find that consumers actually prefer products that were made by mistake to otherwise identical products that were made intentionally. This preference arises because consumers perceive that a product make by mistake is more improbable relative to a product made intentionally, and thus, view the product as more unique. . . . this preference holds regardless of whether the mistake enhances or detracts from the product.” This effect is not found with products for which “consumers do not value uniqueness (e.g., utilitarian goods).”
Taly Reich, Daniella Kupor, Rosanna Smith. 2018. “Made by Mistake: When Mistakes Increase Product Preference.” Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 1085-1103, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx089
Encouraging Green Living (02-19-18)
Schneider and team have found that the pride people anticipate feeling after taking an environmentally responsible action is more likely to encourage green living than the anticipated guilt of not living in an Earth-friendly way. As the researchers report, “We find evidence that anticipating one’s positive future emotional state from green action just prior to making an environmental decision leads to higher pro-environmental behavioral intentions compared to anticipating one’s negative emotional state from inaction. This finding suggests a rethinking in the domain of environmental and climate change messaging, which has traditionally favored inducing negative emotions such as guilt to promote pro-environmental action.”
Claudia Schneider, Lisa Zaval, Elke Weber, and Ezra Markowitz. 2017. “The Influence of Anticipated Pride and Guilt on Pro-Environmental Decision-Making.” PLoS ONE, vol. 12, no. 11, e0188781, https://doi.org/10.1037/journal.pone.0188781
Crowding and Buying (02-16-18)
Sometimes, it’s desirable for customers to feel crowded in a store, and retail spaces can be sized accordingly. Huang, Huang, and Wyer’s work “suggests that a crowded environment can sometimes have a positive impact on consumer behavior. Although feeling crowded motivates consumers to avoid interacting with others, it leads them to become more attached to brands as an alternative way of maintaining their basic need for belongingness.” The effect identified, increased attachment to brands, “does not occur (a) when the crowding environment is composed of familiar people (and, therefore, is not considered aversive); (b) when individuals have an interdependent self-construal [as is the general case in collectivistic societies] (and consequently, high tolerance for crowdedness); (c) when people are accompanied by friends in the crowded environment; (d) when the social function of the brands is made salient [brought top-of-mind]; (e) when people have never used the brand before.”
Xun Huang, Zhongqiang Huang, and Robert Wyer. 2018. “The Influence of Social Crowding on Brand Attachment.” Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 1068-1084, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx087
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