Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Danger, Mystery, And Environmental Preference, Thomas R. Herzog, Gregory A. Smith

Peer Reviewed Articles

The possibility of a connection among high mystery, perceived danger, and depressed preference for certain categories of environments was investigated. Past research had suggested that urban alleys and narrow canyons would exhibit such a pattern. Comparison categories, chosen to be high in mystery and low in perceived danger, were urban and non-urban nature (that is, field-and-forest settings within urban or non-urban environments), respectively. Preference ratings were obtained for settings from each of the four categories. The settings were also rated by independent raters for six predictor variables: mystery, physical danger, social danger, shadow, nature, and vertical depth. The major findings …