Abstract
A large-scale subjective survey was conducted in six shopping malls in Harbin City, China, to determine the influence of social and behavioural characteristics of users on their evaluation of subjective loudness and acoustic comfort. The analysis of social characteristics shows that evaluation of subjective loudness is influenced by income and occupation, with correlation coefficients or contingency coefficients of 0.10 to 0.40 (p<0.05 or p<0.01). Meanwhile, evaluation of acoustic comfort evaluation is influenced by income, education level, and occupation, with correlation coefficients or contingency coefficients of 0.10 to 0.60 (p<0.05 or p<0.01). The effect of gender and age on evaluation of subjective loudness and acoustic comfort is statistically insignificant. The effects of occupation are mainly caused by the differences in income and education level, in which the effects of income are greater than that of education level. In terms of behavioural characteristics, evaluation of subjective loudness is influenced by the reason for visit, frequency of visit, and length of stay, with correlation coefficients or contingency coefficients of 0.10 to 0.40 (p<0.05 or p<0.01). Evaluation of acoustic comfort is influenced by the reason for visit to the site, the frequency of visit, length of stay, and also season of visit, with correlation coefficients of 0.10 to 0.30 (p<0.05 or p<0.01). In particular, users who are waiting for someone show lower evaluation of acoustic comfort, whereas users who go to shopping malls more than once a month show higher evaluation of acoustic comfort. On the contrary, the influence of the period of visit and the accompanying persons are found insignificant.
Highlights
There are about 20,000 shopping malls in China [1]
Based on questionnaire surveys and measurements conducted in six shopping malls in Harbin City, China, this study examines the sound environment in terms of the users’ social and behavioural characteristics
In terms of social characteristics, evaluation of subjective loudness is influenced by income and occupation, with correlation coefficients or contingency coefficients of 0.10 to 0.40
Summary
There are about 20,000 shopping malls in China [1]. Harbin City, for example, has 30 shopping malls, while 15 more will be constructed before 2020 [2]. Previous studies suggested that the sound environment evaluation of a space depends strongly on the social characteristics of the users, such as gender, age, income, occupation, and education, as well as their behavioural characteristics [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24]. With regards to the education factor, Yu and Kang [15,16,17] indicated that the correlation coefficients for natural sounds are predominantly negative, suggesting that people tend to prefer natural sounds more with the increase in education level. Kang [18] indicated that the behavioural characteristics of users may play an important role, and sound quality of an urban area may depend on how long people have been living there [19]. Cultural factors play an important role as well; the effect of social and behavioural factors vary significantly between different countries [25,26]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
