Jonnell C. Sanciangco, G. Breetzke, Zihan Lin, Yu-Hsiu Wang, Kimberly A. Clevenger, A. Pearson
{"title":"The Relationship Between City “Greenness” and Homicide in the US: Evidence Over a 30-Year Period","authors":"Jonnell C. Sanciangco, G. Breetzke, Zihan Lin, Yu-Hsiu Wang, Kimberly A. Clevenger, A. Pearson","doi":"10.1177/00139165211045095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211045095","url":null,"abstract":"Residents in US cities are exposed to high levels of stress and violent crime. At the same time, a number of cities have put forward “greening” efforts which may promote nature’s calming effects and reduce stressful stimuli. Previous research has shown that greening may lower aggressive behaviors and violent crime. In this study we examined, for the first time, the longitudinal effects over a 30-year period of average city greenness on homicide rates across 290 major cities in the US, using multilevel linear growth curve modeling. Overall, homicide rates in US cities decreased over this time-period (52.1–33.5 per 100,000 population) while the average greenness increased slightly (0.41–0.43 NDVI). Change in average city greenness was negatively associated with homicide, controlling for a range of variables (β = −.30, p-value = .02). The results of this study suggest that efforts to increase urban greenness may have small but significant violence-reduction benefits.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47990157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bastian Schiller, Daniel Tönsing, Tobias Kleinert, Robert Böhm, M. Heinrichs
{"title":"Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic Nationwide Lockdown on Mental Health, Environmental Concern, and Prejudice Against Other Social Groups","authors":"Bastian Schiller, Daniel Tönsing, Tobias Kleinert, Robert Böhm, M. Heinrichs","doi":"10.1177/00139165211036991","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211036991","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic has hit humanity globally. Besides its obvious threats to our physical health and economic stability, one can only speculate about the pandemic’s and its countermeasures’ psychosocial impacts. Here, we took advantage of a sample of healthy male participants who had completed psychosocial measures on mental health, environmental concern, and prejudice against asylum-seekers just before and during the nationwide lockdown in Germany in spring 2020. A follow-up assessment of 140 participants during the lockdown provided a unique opportunity to track psychosocial changes in a prospective longitudinal study design. In comparison to before the lockdown (1) mental health worsened, (2) environmental concern increased, and (3) prejudice against asylum-seekers decreased. Our study demonstrates psychosocial “side effects” of the pandemic that bring both challenges and opportunities for our society with regard to the handling of psychological reactions to this pandemic and further global crises, including climate change and mass migration.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43064770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Curtis, A. Rigolon, Dorothy L. Schmalz, B. Brown
{"title":"Policy and Environmental Predictors of Park Visits During the First Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Getting Out While Staying in","authors":"David Curtis, A. Rigolon, Dorothy L. Schmalz, B. Brown","doi":"10.1177/00139165211031199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211031199","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic may have altered visitation patterns to parks, with potential effects on human health. Little is known about park use early in the pandemic, how park availability influenced use, and whether park visits accelerated COVID-19 spread. Using weekly cell phone location data for 620 U.S. counties, we show park visits decreased by an average 26% between March 15 and May 9, 2020. Net of weekly trends, park visits were 2.2% lower when stay-at-home orders were in effect, yet increased by 8.4% with school closures and 4.4% with business closures. Park visits decreased less during the pandemic in counties where park availability was high. Levels of park visits were not associated with COVID-19 growth rate or incidence in the following weeks. Thus, parks served as recreation and leisure outlets when schools and businesses closed, especially where parks were more available, with no evidence of park use increasing COVID-19 spread.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/00139165211031199","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48783684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using a Serious Digital Game to Communicate Drought Risk in Singapore: An Experimental Study","authors":"Corinne Ong, E. Araral","doi":"10.1177/00139165211031197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211031197","url":null,"abstract":"This experimental study tested the effects of digital tactical messaging on 189 undergraduates’ drought risk responsiveness using a mobile serious game. In the game’s virtual household environment, treatment groups were exposed to message framings informed by risk psychological theories. Drought risk responsiveness was indicated by participants’ in-game water consumption levels. The first intervention entailed treatment groups receiving advisories about an impending drought whose magnitude and likelihood varied for different groups. Next, groups would either receive a message reinforcing the efficacy, or social acceptability, of conserving and rationing water during a drought condition. Lastly, groups received a message about a water rationing exercise that they could participate in. Factorial analyses showed that knowing the severity and likelihood of an impending drought did not affect drought risk responsiveness. However, norms- and efficacy-framed messages, as well as rationing exercises, influenced risk responsiveness. The study is expected to be instructive to policymakers and practitioners interested in digitally communicating drought risk and adaptation to the public.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/00139165211031197","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46880761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nature Connectedness and Nature Exposure Interactively Influence Social Dominance Orientation and Policy Support for Marginalized Groups during the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"H. K. Ng, A. Leung","doi":"10.1177/00139165211031198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211031198","url":null,"abstract":"Social dominance orientation (SDO) has been reported to predict attitudes and behavior toward the natural environment. This research investigated whether dispositional connectedness with and temporary exposure to nature would reversely alter SDO. Two studies reported consistent results: Nature connectedness predicted lower SDO, and exposure to nature (vs. urban) decreased SDO only among nature-connected people. Moreover, the effect of nature exposure was strongest when the environment registered high security features. Study 2 generalized the findings on SDO to people’s policy support for marginalized groups in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are discussed in the light of the transition from people-to-nature connections to interpersonal connections and the heterogeneity of nature’s effect. We conclude by discussing the importance of nature exposure, of which people have been deprived since the global lockdown, in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/00139165211031198","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47919374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evacuation Behavior in a Subway Train Emergency: A Video-based Analysis","authors":"R. Philpot, M. Levine","doi":"10.1177/00139165211031193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211031193","url":null,"abstract":"How do people behave in the seconds after they become aware they have been caught up in a real-life transport emergency? This paper presents the first micro-behavioral, video-based analysis of the behavior of passengers during a small explosion and subsequent fire on a subway train. We analyzed the behavior of 40 passengers present in the same carriage as the explosion. We documented the first action of the passengers following the onset of the emergency and described evidence of pro- and anti-social behavior. Passengers’ first actions varied widely. Moreover, anti-social behavior was rare and displays of pro-sociality were more common. In a quantitative analysis, we examined spatial clustering of running behavior and patterns in passenger exit choices. We found both homogeneity and heterogeneity in the running behavior and exiting choices of passengers. We discuss the implications of these findings for the mass emergency literature and for evacuation modeling.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/00139165211031193","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64804246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Brightness Motivates Healthy Behaviors: The Role of Self-Accountability","authors":"Eugene Y. Chan","doi":"10.1177/00139165211026609","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211026609","url":null,"abstract":"A growing literature suggests the possibility that brightness (vs. darkness) affects myriad human behaviors and how people think. One stream suggests that brightness increases self-awareness. We extend these findings and formally hypothesize that brightness (vs. darkness) increases self-accountability, thereby motivating people to take actions to meet their self-standards for health, of which most people generally fall short. Three experimental studies were conducted. The results indicate that brightness increases healthier food choices (Study 1) and physical activity intentions (Study 2). Self-accountability mediates the effect (Study 2), while manipulating self-accountability moderates it (Study 3), thereby providing evidence for its likely causal role in explaining the impact of brightness on facilitating healthy behaviors. The findings offer insights into the positive benefits of brightness beyond past findings that it improves mood and psychological well-being. Limitations of the current research as well as future research directions are discussed.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/00139165211026609","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46573133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Weather, Values, Capacity and Concern: Toward a Social-Cognitive Model of Specialty Crop Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change Risk","authors":"Guang Han, E. Schoolman, J. Arbuckle, L. Morton","doi":"10.1177/00139165211026607","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211026607","url":null,"abstract":"As specialty crop production has become increasingly important to U.S. agriculture, public and private stakeholders have called for research and outreach efforts centered on risks posed by climate change. Drawing on a survey of specialty crop farmers, this study explores farmers’ perceptions of climate change risks. Underlying cognitive, experiential, and socio-cultural factors hypothesized to influence farmers’ climate change risk perceptions are tested using structural equation modeling techniques. Results show that specialty crop farmers exhibit an overall moderate concern about climatic risks. The more capable and prepared farmers feel themselves to be, the less concerned they are about climate change. Farmers who have recently experienced more extreme weather events perceive climate change to present greater risks. In addition, farmers’ risk perceptions are also shaped by attitudes toward human exemptionalism and productivism values. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for outreach and future research.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/00139165211026607","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47795631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effect of Weather on Assault","authors":"J. Corcoran, R. Zahnow","doi":"10.1177/00139165211014629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211014629","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the role of local weather conditions in explaining variations in assault, in sub-tropical Brisbane, Australia. It details the extent to which local variations in weather are important in shaping the necessary preconditions for assault to take place. Results suggest that higher daily temperatures are associated with an increased propensity for assault at the neighborhood level after controlling for seasonal effects. Assaults occur significantly less frequently in summer than in spring and there is a greater propensity for assaults to occur on weekends compared to weekdays. Neighborhood disadvantage, ethnic diversity, and the presence of risky facilities such bars, schools, or shops increased the propensity for assault above and beyond the effect of temperature. Findings are important in their capacity to isolate the effect of the prevailing local weather conditions whilst controlling for seasonal variations, land use, and the socio-economic and demographic context within which assaults took place.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/00139165211014629","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46116164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nature Contact in the Carceral Workplace: Greenspace and Staff Sickness Absence in Prisons in England and Wales","authors":"D. Moran, Phil Jones, J. Jordaan, Amy E. Porter","doi":"10.1177/00139165211014618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211014618","url":null,"abstract":"This paper demonstrates for the first time that prisons with a higher proportion of natural vegetation within their perimeter have lower levels of staff sickness absence. It makes three significant contributions. First, it extends studies of workplace nature contact into the un-researched carceral context. Second, whereas previous workplace nature contact studies have largely utilized single-site surveys, it presents national-level, statistically robust analysis. Third, it brings a novel new perspective to studies of sickness absence within correctional workforces, by considering the effect of the physical environment. Econometric estimations presented in the paper confirm lower levels of staff sick-leave in prisons with more greenspace. This relationship persists when we control for prison size, security level, age, level of crowding, levels of self-harm and violence among prisoners, and assaults against staff. The findings are significant in demonstrating the benefits of nature contact in workplaces in general, and carceral environments in particular. Importantly, this has the potential to influence future prison design.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2021-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/00139165211014618","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44379357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}