Preference or preferences for landscape?

Abstract

The research reported investigates whether landscape preference is a unitary concept and the role that physical and behavioural expectations for places could play in the cognitive categorization of landscapes into different types. Italian and Australian university students judged two examples of 12 types of scenes from their home environments. Three types of preference judgment were made—overall preference, preference as a place to live and work and preference as a place to visit on a vacation. Participants also classified the scenes as either natural or built. The results of the experiment showed a dominant effect of scene type and variations due to the kind of preference judgment made and to subjects' nationality. For some scene types. preferences differed according to whether the scene was judged to be natural or built. When scenes were judged as built, all three types of preferences were lower than when they were judged as natural. The complex pattern of results is discussed in terms of theoretical issues relating to the boundaries of the landscape category, the role of naturalness in landscape experience and preference and similarities and differences in experience between different cultures and geographic locations.