Assessing comfort in the workplace: A unified theory of behavioral and thermal expectations

Assessing comfort and predicting occupant behavior in the workplace has been a major topic within built environmental research. Despite the vast knowledge, several studies have reported a performance gap between the predicted and the actual behaviors in buildings, together with a discrepancy between predicted and reported comfort levels of occupants within the working environment. To close these gaps, the inclusion of human behavioral and perceptual theories has been investigated to understand the drivers leading to adaptive behaviors and occupants' comfort preferences. As a result, expectations are hypothesized playing a relevant role in the perception of comfort. However, little is known about the formation of expectations towards the indoor climate and the impact on adaptive behaviors. Therefore, drawing on psychological and comfort theories, we built a research framework to study occupants' expectations in buildings and their influence on comfort-related responses and behaviors. A structural equation model was empirically tested using survey data collected from office workers in Germany. Results showed that occupant's expectations positively influenced comfort and adaptive behaviors. Cognitive mechanisms, such as attitudes, perceived control, self-efficacy, personal norms and thermal history, were needed to capture expectations of the indoor environment. The relationship between the expected interaction with a fan to modify the indoor environment and the current occupant behavior was mediated by occupants' previous experiences with fans. This paper contributes to the assessment of comfort and occupant behavior literature by developing a theoretical framework of behavioral and thermal expectations in the built environment. Findings may have implications on the design of adaptive opportunities to enhance occupant satisfaction with the workplace and to support design strategies to reduce the building energy consumption.