Flowers and Helping (11-13-15)
Gueguen and his colleagues have linked seeing flowers with an increased likelihood to help others. In their studies, passersby were more likely to help researchers (male and female) who dropped something on the floor when that investigator was holding a bunch of flowers than when they were holding something else or nothing. The effect was not seen when people were carrying potted plants, just with cut flowers. The researchers state that “The positive emotions associated with the presence of flowers and their symbolism were used to explain our results.”
Nicolas Gueguen, Stefan Jordy, and Ruiz Clement. 2015. “Carrying Flowers on a City Street Increases Others’ Spontaneous Helping Behavior.” Ecopsychology, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 153-159.
Amenity Planning Tool (11-12-15)
Hidalgo and Castaner, of MIT’s Media Lab, have developed a complex, but useful, model to determine optimal distribution of neighborhood amenities, such as coffee shops and parking lots. It is available free at the web address noted, below. As the researchers report, “Neighborhoods populated by amenities, such as restaurants, cafes, and libraries, are considered to be a key property of desirable cities. Yet, despite the global enthusiasm for amenity-rich neighborhoods, little is known about the empirical laws governing the colocation of amenities at the neighborhood scale. . . . . [we] use the Amenity Space [data set developed] to build a recommender system that identifies the amenities that are missing in a neighborhood given its current pattern of specialization.”
Cesar Hidalgo and Elisa Castaner. 2015. “Do We Need Another Coffee House? The Amenity Space and the Evolution of Neighborhoods.” Physics and Society section, Cornell University Library http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.02868?utm_source=Complexity+Digest&utm_campaign=d86d35776e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f55ea67de1-d86d35776e-67211033
Park Design and Youth Activity (11-10-15)
How actively children play in parks is influenced by the design of those parks. Baek and his team found that “particular features of parks—especially complexity in landscape surfaces, proximity to sport facilities and playgrounds, and the availability of pedestrian trails—enable greater intensity of youth physical activity in a park.”
Solhyon Baek, Samira Raja, Jiyoung Park, Leonard Epstein, and Li Yin. “Park Design and Children’s Active Play: A Microscale Spatial Analysis of Intensity of Play in Olmsted’s Delaware Park.” Environment and Planning B, in press.
Designing Polling Places (11-09-15)
Acemyan and Kortum have assessed the optimal design of places where people will vote. They report that participants (from the United States) asked to view photorealistic images of polling places and indicate the usability of those locations gave the lowest ratings to configurations “when voting machines had neither dividers nor spacing between units and when the voting machines were placed so that two rows faced each other in the center of the room. Anticipated usability was highest when the voting systems had dividers around the interface, there was space between units, and polling booths were arranged in the room such that voters did not face one another.” Visual privacy prevails!
“Polling Station Environments Matter: Physical Layout Can Impact the Voting Experience.” 2015. Press release, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, https://hfes.org/web/DetailNews.aspx?ID=389
Associations to Textures (11-06-15)
Etzi and her colleagues were interested in learning more about people’s responses to feeling various textures. They describe their project and findings: “Samples of cotton, satin, tinfoil, sandpaper, and abrasive sponge, were stroked along the participants’ forearm at the speed of 5 cm/s. . . . smooth textures were associated with features evoked by words such as ‘bright’ and ‘quiet’; by contrast, the rougher textures were associated with adjectives such as ‘dim’ and ‘loud’. . . . Moreover, smooth materials were associated with the labels ‘feminine’ and ‘beautiful’, whereas the rough textures were associated with the opposite adjectives ‘masculine’ and ‘ugly’. . . . participants matched pleasantness, relief and comfort to smooth textures, and their absence to rough materials.” These findings can inform the selection of finish textures in a variety of contexts.
Roberta Etzi, Charles Spence, Massimiliano Zampini, and Alberto Gallace. 2015. “When Sandpaper is ‘Kiki’ and Satin is ‘Bouba’: An Exploration of the Associations Between Words, Emotional States, and the Tactile Attributes of Everyday Materials.” Multisensory Research, vol. 29, no. 1-3, pp. 133-155.
Ethics and Distances (11-05-15)
Scientists have learned that distance between workers’ work areas influences the likelihood that unethical behavior will “trickle-down” through an organization, from higher-level managers to other employees. Physical separation prevents unconscious copying of undesirable behaviors, and, unfortunately, similarly impedes the reproduction of desirable ones. Separation of middle managers from their superiors seems to be the most effective way to thwart the spread of unethical behaviors from the highest to the lowest levels of an organization. People are physically close to each other when they sit beside each other or work on the same floor of most buildings, for example. The researchers also observed a link between the physical closeness of people’s work areas and their ability to relate to/empathize with each other; closer locations were tied to closer bonds.
Gijs van Houweilingen, Marius van Dijke, and David De Cremer. “Fairness Enactment as Response to Higher Level Unfairness: The Roles of Self-Construal and Spatial Distance.” Journal of Management, in press.
Teammate Treatment (11-04-15)
Teammates can all be treated the same or some may be treated better than others, for example, via the design of their workspaces or tools provided to them. Treatment can vary because of perceived differences in competence or for many other reasons. Sui and his colleagues have learned that equal treatment to all or much better treatment to some team members decreases team performance.
Yang Sui, Hui Wang, Bradley Kirkman and Ning Li. “Understanding the Curvilinear Relationships Between LMX Differentiation and Team Coordination and Performance.” Personnel Psychology, in press.
Learning About Resting (11-02-15)
An interdisciplinary team is focusing on learning more about rest. The group, named “Hubbub,” describes themselves as “an international collective of social scientists, artists, humanities researchers, scientists, broadcasters, public engagement professionals and mental health experts. We explore the dynamics of rest, noise, tumult, activity and work, as they operate in mental health, the neurosciences, the arts and the everyday.” Many spaces and objects in some way relate to resting, so monitoring Hubbub’s activities and findings will be useful to many readers. The Hubbub website is http://hubbubgroup.org/about/
Materials in Society (10-29-15)
Drazin and Kuchler have edited an intriguing look at the link between materials and the society in which they’re used. As the publisher’s description of their book details, “Beyond the physical and chemical properties of materials, their cultural properties have often been overlooked in anthropological studies: finished products have been perceived as 'social' yet the materials which comprise them are considered 'raw' or natural'. . . . Human societies have always worked with materials. However, the customs and traditions surrounding this differ according to the place, the time and the material itself. Whether or not the material is man-made, materials are defined by social intervention. Today, these constitute one of the most exciting areas of global scientific research and innovation, harboring the potential to act as key vehicles of change in the world. But this 'materials revolution' has complex social implications. Smart materials are designed to anticipate our actions and needs, yet we are increasingly unable to apprehend the composite materials which comprise new products. . . . the text argues that the materials themselves represent a shifting ground around which relationships, identities and powers are constantly formed and dissolved in the act of making and remaking.” The text thoroughly reviews the social significance of materials, primarily via an international collection of ethnographic studies.
Adam Drazin and Susanne Kuchler (editors). 2015. The Social Life of Materials: Studies in Materials and Society. Bloomsbury: New York.
Designing for Physical Activity (10-28-15)
The Active Living Research group is making available without charge, at the web address noted below, a peer-reviewed report on active living research because “The design and maintenance of neighborhoods, streets, and parks, and people’s perceptions of those places . . . can affect physical activity in youth and adults.” Key research results presented include: “People, regardless of their socio-cultural characteristics, generally have similar perceptions of the aesthetics of an environment. Moreover, these perceptions are not just ‘in the eye of the beholder,’ but rather are linked to characteristics of the environment. Aesthetics and perceived safety from either crime or traffic seem to be most important for attracting people to places. Vegetation improves visual appeal. People prefer orderly, neat, and well-kept environments to disorderly, messy, poorly maintained environments or those having physical incivilities (such as graffiti, litter or boarded up buildings). People prefer open, unobstructed views. Physical elements, including sitting space, sculptures, food, deciduous trees, water elements, and access to the street, can attract people. Perceived safety from crime is associated with greater order and upkeep, unobstructed views, lighting, and the presence of others who might help.”
Jack Nasar. 2015. “Creating Places That Promote Physical Activity: Perceiving Is Believing.” Active Living Research, University of California, San Diego Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, http://activelivingresearch.org/creating-places-promote-physical-activity-perceiving-believing.
Lavender Promotes Better Sleep (10-26-15)
Researchers report that smelling the scent of lavender promotes sleep. Lillehei and her team determined, via a study in participants’ “usual sleep setting” that people with “self-reported sleep issues” slept better if they fell asleep while smelling lavender.
Angela Lillehei, Linda Halcon, Kay Savik, and Reilly Reis. 2015. “Effect of Inhaled Lavender and Sleep Hygiene on Self-Reported Sleep Issues: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, vol. 21, no. 7, pp. 430-438.
Comparing Responses to Daylight and Electric Light (10-23-15)
Borisuit and colleagues investigated people’s responses to daylight and electric light in an area very similar to a contemporary office environment. They found “significantly higher visual acceptance scores under DL [daylight] [it was liked more and felt to be more comfortable] than EL [electric light] conditions, despite the lack of a direct outside view. Subjective [perceived] glare was lower under DL than under EL condition. While subjective alertness and physical well-being decreased for both lighting conditions in the course of the afternoon, subjects felt sleepy earlier under EL than DL. Physical well-being [was felt to] became worse in the course of the afternoon only under EL.” The researchers report that their data suggest “a greater tolerance for glare under daylight.” The electric lighting was produced by “eight polychromatic white light luminaires, mounted on the ceiling (58 W, fluorescent tube, 4000 K).”
A.Borisuit, F. Linhart, J-L. Scartezzini, and M. Munch. 2015. “Effects of Realistic Office Daylighting and Electric Lighting Conditions on Visual Comfort, Alertness and Mood.” Lighting Research and Technology, vol. 47, pp. 192-209.
Words Vs. Pictures (10-22-15)
Rim and colleagues investigated differences in responses to words and images, and their findings can be useful to designers gathering information. The researchers found that “words promote thinking of events in terms of their abstract and central features (i.e., high-level construal), whereas pictures promote thinking in terms of more concrete and idiosyncratic features (i.e., low-level construal).”
SoYon Rim, Elinor Amit, Kentaro Fulita, Yaacov Trope, Georg Halbeisen, and Daniel Algom.” 2015. “How Words Transcend and Pictures Immerse: On the Association Between Medium and Level of Construal.” Social Psychological and Personality Science, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 123-130.
Greening and Crime (10-21-15)
Kondo and her team found that greening vacant lots influences the occurrence of various sorts of crimes in different ways. They studied the effects of Youngstown Ohio’s initiative to reuse vacant land, comparing “crime in and around newly treated lots” and “crimes in and around randomly selected and matched, untreated vacant lot controls.” As the researchers report, “The effects of two types of vacant lot treatments on crime were tested: a cleaning and greening ‘stabilisation’ treatment and a ‘community reuse’ treatment mostly involving community gardens. The combined effects of both types of vacant lot treatments were also tested. . . . [the researchers] found the most consistent significant reductions in burglaries around stabilisation lots, and in assaults around community reuse lots. Spill-over crime reduction effects were found in contiguous areas around newly treated lots. Significant increases in motor vehicle thefts around both types of lots were also found after they had been greened. Community-initiated vacant lot greening may have a greater impact on reducing more serious, violent crimes.”
Michelle Kondo, Bernadette Hohl, SeungHoon Han, and Charles Branas. “Effects of Greening and Community Reuse of Vacant Lots on Crime.” Urban Studies, in press.
Light and Children’s Health (10-19-15)
Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology investigated links between the timing of light exposure and children’s health. Pattinson and her colleagues found that “pre-schoolers exposed to more light earlier in day tend to weigh more. . . . ‘We found moderate intensity light exposure earlier in the day was associated with increased body mass index (BMI) while children who received their biggest dose of light - outdoors and indoors - in the afternoon were slimmer,’ said Ms. Pattinson. . . . ‘Recent research in adults suggests exposure to light later in the day is associated with increased body mass’ [all quotes Pattinson]. . . . ‘While adults who take in more morning light are slimmer, pre-school children exposed to morning light tend to be heavier.’” The adult-child differences in the implications of light timing complicate fine-tuning lighting applications at locations where both will be present, such as pre-schools.
“World-First QUT Study Links Light Exposure to Weight Gain in Children.” 2015. Press release, Queensland University of Technology, https://www.qut.edu.au/news/news?news-id=98439