Effects of architectural interventions on psychological, cognitive, social, and pro-environmental aspects of occupant well-being: Results from an immersive online study

The impact of the built environment on human well-being is a growing area of research due to the increasing amount of time people spend indoors. This paper presents a novel research approach utilizing an immersive online survey to evaluate the influence of built features on four well-being outcomes: sense of belonging, stress, creativity, and pro-environmental concern. The survey employs pictures and videos to immerse participants (N = 411) in different settings, focusing on the effects of natural versus artificial materials, the presence versus absence of windows, and photographic decor with representations of diverse versus non-diverse people. Results indicate statistically significant impacts of these built features on our well-being metrics. Specifically, the presence of windows promotes a stronger sense of belonging compared to the absence of windows. Natural materials result in lower negative affect, one important aspect of stress, compared to artificial materials, while the presence of windows result in higher positive affect compared to the absence of windows. Decor with representations of diverse people enhances self-reported creativity and divergent creativity scores, compared to non-diverse decor. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that immersive online survey approaches serve as a viable experimental paradigm to test hypotheses about the built environment. In fact, such approaches offer advantages in terms of streamlining administration time, financial costs, utilization of human resources, and flexibility in systematically manipulating the study space. These findings highlight the important influence that the built environment has on well-being outcomes and the potential of immersive online surveys in advancing research in this field.