Environmental Numbness in the Classroom.

Following research on deleterious effects of surroundings on the behavior of users of other institutions, a naturalistic study of classroom-student interaction was conducted. Instructor-experimenters observed and recorded the behavior of university students in a laboratory which had been slightly altered to maximize difficulty of movement in the room. The amount and frequency of student alteration of the inhospitable furnishings was compared with person-furnishing distances in a non-institutional, personalized setting. The results indicated a strong tendency for students to accept without alteration a rather uncomfortable classroom arrangement. A brief discussion of possible implications for student attitudes toward school follows, one of these being that a specific inhospitality may lead to a diffuse negative feeling and may affect communicative behavior.