Abstract
Previous studies were able to demonstrate different verbally stated affective responses to environments. In the present study we used objective measures of emotion. We examined startle reflex modulation as well as changes in heart rate and skin conductance while subjects virtually walked through six different areas of urban Paris using the StreetView tool of Google maps. Unknown to the subjects, these areas were selected based on their median real estate prices. First, we found that price highly correlated with subjective rating of pleasantness. In addition, relative startle amplitude differed significantly between the area with lowest versus highest median real estate price while no differences in heart rate and skin conductance were found across conditions. We conclude that interaction with environmental scenes does elicit emotional responses which can be objectively measured and quantified. Environments activate motivational and emotional brain circuits, which is in line with the notion of an evolutionary developed system of environmental preference. Results are discussed in the frame of environmental psychology and aesthetics.
Highlights
Why do we prefer some environments, built and natural, over others? Why do we respond with certain emotions to places, even if we do not have any prior experience with them? Some scholars attributed aesthetic responses to environments solely to learning experiences [1]
The present study demonstrated verbally reported and physiological emotional responses to virtual walks through six urban environments varying in median real estate price
Regarding objective startle reflex measures the contrast highest versus lowest price category representing the conditions with the hypothesized maximum difference in affective valence revealed a strong effect and reached significance
Summary
Why do we prefer some environments, built and natural, over others? Why do we respond with certain emotions to places, even if we do not have any prior experience with them? Some scholars attributed aesthetic responses to environments solely to learning experiences [1]. Scenes high in mystery and complexity both promise a gain in information while coherence and legibility assures its comprehension They link this information processing approach to an evolutionary perspective of preference by stating that human survival depends on constantly updating ones cognitive maps of the environment which would be served by a natural preference for places that offer new information while enabling its easy comprehension. With respect to the roles of cognition and affect in creating preferences they claim that automatic cognitive processes such as the identification of content and the extraction of potential informational gains would integrate into an affective code resulting in avoidance or approach behavior This sort of automatic habitat selection seems reasonable to be innate to some degree; after all, it is not unprecedented in humans as many animals show this innate pattern of habitat selection [10]
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