Researchers from some of the best business schools have conducted a study that explains how liberating, expansive settings may impact human behavior and encourages dishonesty.
Expasive settings such as a spacious driver's seat and comfortable, large legroom at workplace may make individuals more likely to indulge in dishonesty and other related negative behavior, including violating traffic rules, cheating, stealing and others, the study claims.
"In everyday working and living environments, our body postures are incidentally expanded and contracted by our surroundings - by the seats in our cars, the furniture in and around workspaces, even the hallways in our offices - and these environments directly influence the propensity of dishonest behavior in our everyday lives," key author of the study, Andy Yap, explained.
Though individuals do not pay too much attention to their posture and shifts in the body during the entire day, these movements and settings may have a tremendous impact on the individual and his behavior, feelings and thoughts, the researchers claim.
A state of power, which is often linked to being in liberating spaces, could encourage dishonest behavior and cause individuals to take up misleading decisions.
"This is a real concern. Our research shows that office managers should pay attention to the ergonomics of their workspaces. The results suggest that these physical spaces have tangible and real-world impact on our behaviors," Andy added.
The researchers conducted four studies in the laboratory, to prove how expansive spaces could encourage dishonest and negative behavior in individuals.
One of these tests included video game stimulation in both- a constricted and expansive environment, to check exactly when the individuals had a chance of getting involved in a hit-and-run case.
As an extension of this laboratory setting, a field study was also carried out to check traffic law violations in individuals in both the settings, which clearly revealed how expansive driver's seats encouraged people to break traffic laws.
This study may help scientists get an insight into how external conditions could affect the thinking and behavior of individuals.
The study is expected to be published in the next issue of the journal Psychological Science.
