Abstract
Over recent decades, the study of psychological restoration has attracted a considerable amount of interest within and without the boundaries of environmental psychology, with most of the work focused on analyzing restoration in natural contexts. However, little attention has been paid to the (possible) restorative potential of urban settings, as they have usually been expected not to be restorative and to present some elements that might imply negative health outcomes in the short and long term. In this field study, our aim was to evaluate restoration in urban squares. To this end, we measured participants' attentional and affective states both before and after spending half an hour in an urban square. A sample of 46 subjects contemplated and walked through one of the two selected squares that differed in restorative potential (PRS). Analyses revealed a statistically significant increase in cognitive performance and a decrease in negative affect in both squares. They also showed that participants reported greater stress recovery rates in one of the settings. These results support the idea that cities can be potentially restorative and justify the relevance of a research area focused on the urban designs, which may offer psychological benefits to urban citizens.
Highlights
The potential for reducing negative psychological states or increasing positive ones is a wellestablished value present in natural landscapes, known as restorative potential
Initial Psychological State Before focusing on any possible restoration achieved by participants, their psychological state at the start of the experiment was analyzed
Even though subjects had worked an average of almost 4 h on the day of the experiment and 20 since the beginning of the week, their attentional fatigue and emotional distress levels could be described as low
Summary
The potential for reducing negative psychological states or increasing positive ones is a wellestablished value present in natural landscapes, known as restorative potential. The possible restorative potential of urban landscapes has been less widely studied, since cities have been considered by authors such as Simmel (1984) and Milgram (1970) as being stressful and overdemanding contexts. Even when the urban environment has been studied, attention was focused on green areas within the city (e.g., urban parks, forests, and university campuses). Our knowledge of the potential role that other public urban places may play is limited, some evidence supports the idea that urban landscapes may be restorative. The aim of this paper is to expand existing evidence by assessing the psychological effects of spending time in a specific type of the urban landscape: public squares.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 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 callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
