Demographic Effects in Environmental Aesthetics: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

As design review and multicultural constituencies become more and more prevalent, planners will have increasing needs to make aesthetic decisions that may be contingent on social or cultural factors. Accordingly, it would be useful for planners to have access to the body of empirical literature that has been published on the demographic effects in environmental aesthetics. A literature review found 107 relevant references. These references covered more than 19,000 respondents and 3,281 environmental scenes. Overall, the correlation of preferences between different demographic groups was r = .82. Correlations are also reported for the following factors: multiculturalism, designers and other people, students and other people, children and adults, gender, and special interest groups. Correlations were very high except for children, designers and others for avant-garde architecture, and special interest groups.