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“Evolutionary Store Atmospherics” – Designing with Evolution in Mind

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Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences

Abstract

Environmental psychology research shows that natural environments and natural habitat qualities are better able to positively influence human functioning (e.g., stress reduction) than most common urban environments. Such positive psychological states are often interpreted as remnants of our species’ evolutionary history in natural environments. Nowadays a substantial part of the urban fabric is dedicated to commercial and business-related activities. Such environments however often lack those natural habitat qualities and elements, which have been found to promote positive psychological states. This chapter aims to demonstrate and illustrate the value of integrating such natural qualities into business-related environments, and specifically into retail environments. We coin this design strategy “Evolutionary Store Atmospherics” (ESA). The scope of this chapter is theoretical as well as practical. On the one hand, we provide an overview of the specific “ancestral” landscape elements and qualities that are found to have positive effects on human functioning. On the other hand, we discuss and illustrate how these key qualities can be integrated in store environments. Special attention is paid to situational factors that could interact with ESA design proposals, such as, for example, gender and type of shopping.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Roger Ulrich has developed a similar model, coined the psycho-evolutionary framework (Ulrich, 1983, 1993). The “preferenda” that are part of this framework mostly overlap with the predictors of the Kaplans’ model.

  2. 2.

    Bell et al. (2005: 45) note that the relation between the four predictors and preference remains somewhat ambiguous: “Although the relative importance of each element is not clear, coherence and complexity may require only moderate levels in order to facilitate information processing, whereas the more legibility and mystery in a scene, the better in terms of preference judgements”.

  3. 3.

    This type of brain wave is associated with wakeful relaxation and is commonly measured by an Electroencephalograph (EEG).

  4. 4.

    This version of the savanna hypothesis should not be confused with Satoshi Kanazawa’s savanna principle (Kanazawa 2004), or with Dennis and McCall's (2005) savannah hypothesis.

  5. 5.

    It must be noted that, historically, skyscrapers were not primarily constructed to appeal to this sense of hazards, but arose because of real estate realities, i.e., they were cheaper to build.

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Acknowledgments

Writing this paper was supported by the Research Program of the Scientific Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), project G.0446.08. Many thanks to Tjerk van de Wetering of BYTR for his assistance with finding visual work illustrating ESA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre of Marketing and Consumer Science, University of Leuven, Naamsestraat 69 - box 3545, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Yannick Joye

  2. Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Sint Jacobsstraat 2, 2000, Antwerpen, Belgium

    Karolien Poels

  3. Department of Business Economics, Hasselt University & Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Agoralaan – Building D, 3590, Diepenbeek, Belgium

    Kim Willems

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Correspondence to Yannick Joye .

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  1. John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. 1455, Montreal, H3G 1M8, Québec, Canada

    Gad Saad

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Joye, Y., Poels, K., Willems, K. (2011). “Evolutionary Store Atmospherics” – Designing with Evolution in Mind. In: Saad, G. (eds) Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92784-6_11

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