Resumo de Do landscapes influence human behavior?

From deforestation to the art of topiary, humans have a long history of altering their environments. But our environments, say scientists at Arizona State Univeristy, may also change us.In a multi-year project called the "The North Desert Village Landscaping Experiment," researchers transformed 24 identical family housing units on the Arizona State University campus in the Sonoran Desert, creating five mini-neighborhoods, each with a different landscape style. The multidisciplinary project, encompassing everything from sociology to ecology, allows scientists to observe how people's behaviors and attitudes vary in response to different environmental characteristics. "We think about how humans are always transforming the environment, whether we're building new houses, or people in the rainforest are tearing down trees," said ASU sociologist Scott Yabiku, one of the lead researchers on the project, which began in 2004. "But if we install different types of landscapes, will that change the way people think about their environment?"document.write(''); if ((!document.images && navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Mozilla/2.") >= 0) || navigator.userAgent.indexOf("WebTV")>= 0) {document.write('');document.write('');}The new landscapes are meant to representthose typically found in the Phoenix, Ariz. area, Yabiku said. Forexample, the &quotxeric&quot landscape contains low water-use plants, littlegrass, and a drip irrigation system, while the &quotmesic&quot is full ofbroadleaf trees that require flood irrigation. One neighborhood serves as anexperimental control and remains unaltered, containing plants native to thedesert. After the landscapes were created in 2004,sociologists conducted preliminary interviews, asking residents to ratepictures of each style on a scale of one to four. They found peopleoverwhelmingly preferred the greener views. The results also showed landscapepreference to be strongly correlated with gender: Women rated xeric and desertlandscapes lower than men did. Researchers postulate that the difference ingender preference might be due to differences in labor responsibilities—such asyard work and childcare—between women and men. The researchers fully expected theseratings to change during the course of the experiment, Yabiku said. &quotWe hypothesize that there will be anappreciation of landscapes now that people have been living in them,&quotYabiku said. &quotSo we expect these ratings of the desert and the xericlandscapes to increase over time.&quotThey also suspect that preferences arelinked to factors like whether an individual recycles, or has the ability toidentify birds and plants, as well as their attitudes about water issues. The initial hypotheses being testedinclude whether ecological knowledge is higher in individuals who prefer nativelandscapes and whether more recreational activity occurs in more lushenvironments. Researchers are also analyzing howecological factors, including microclimate and mammalian diversity, areaffected by alterations in the landscape. Although not all the results are in,ecologists have already observed an increase in soil temperature duringnighttime in landscapes with fewer plants. This supports the idea thatsurrounding a house with vegetation might lead to cooler climates, said ChrisMartin, a biologist at ASU.The study, which will continue until atleast 2010, is a unique investigation into people's social and ecologicalinterests, which may sometimes be in conflict, said Scott Collins, a biologistat the University of New Mexico who is notinvolved in the project. &quotParents don't like their kids goingout and running into cactus thorn in their backyard,&quot Collins said.&quotSo there are interesting contrasts between social needs or behavioralneeds and ecological needs.&quot&nbsp

Resumos Relacionados