Emotional experiences of urban walking environments: an application of the circumplex model of affect

Abstract

Introduction: Encouraging walking is essential for creating healthy and liveable cities. While research shows that walking environments influence walking frequency, less is known about how the built environment influences the emotional experience of walking. The circumplex model of affect (CM) is a well-established psychological framework for structuring emotions but has been applied in few studies of the built environment. This study applies the CM as a framework to understand how urban walking environments influence emotions. Methods: An expert panel evaluated ten videos of walking environments based on urban indicators. The same environments were rated by participants of an online survey (N = 311) in terms of pleasantness, excitement, stress, and complexity. Principal component analysis combined these variables into valence and activation, the two dimensions of the CM. According to valence and activation levels, we identified participants' emotional states (stressed, bored, excited, relaxed) for the walking environments. We estimated mixed logit models to investigate how the emotional states change with different urban features. Results: Urban features were significantly related to the identified emotions: mixed-use streets with varied facades and pedestrian spaces evoke excitement, modern residential streets with greenery and reduced traffic promote relaxation, monotonous streets with closed facades and traffic cause boredom, and streets with underpasses, high traffic, poor accessibility or litter cause stress. Improving features such as facades and urban surroundings most significantly increase the likelihood of feeling excited. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of urban design features that encourage engagement with the environment and create exciting and relaxing experiences. By showing how features such as varied facades, greenery and pedestrianisation evoke positive emotions, this study highlights the critical role of well-designed urban environments in shaping emotional experiences. For future research, the application of CM to the built environment provides a systematic way of analysing pedestrians' emotions and well-being.