Landscapes And Human Behaviour

This is initial research due to be conducted for a further 4 years, but these first observations are intriguing.

graduate student families in the cluster of six houses abutting lush lawns and ornamental bushes spend time together talking while their kids play outside. Meanwhile, the families in a nearby cluster of six homes barely know each other. But that may be in part because their homes sit on native Sonoran desert, not nearly as conducive to recreation as the lush microclimate researchers created in the first neighborhood. Social scientists and biophysical ecologists are finding that environmental surroundings may play a significant role in human social interaction, serving either as a social lubricant as in the first case, or as a barrier.

I seem to recall reading of some research that had ascertained that humans generally have a preferred landscape in terms of water, hills and so forth, perhaps this will back some of that up and extend it into the effects on sociability. Potentially lots of important ramifications for the design of urban space.

I suspect also that it may help us appreciate more fully and precisely the importance of ambience in places of gathering which includes church events of various kinds. Something that the alternative worship movement has drawn attention to in the last 15 years or so.
ScienceDaily: Landscapes And Human Behavior
Filed in: environment, social_interaction, ecology, research