Good feelings can be built in (Image: Steve Dunwell/Getty)
Our personalities shape our homes, but it鈥檚 not one-way traffic: they exert a powerful psychological effect on us too. Take the way it smells. 鈥淚f there are clean smells in the house, you are more likely to keep it clean,鈥� says , a psychologist at the London School of Economics.
鈥淚f there are clean smells in your home, you鈥檙e more likely to keep it clean鈥�
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In one study carried out in 2005, Dutch psychologists found that the 鈥� even though they weren鈥檛 aware of the scent. Although the research was carried out in a lab, Dolan suspects that we are likely to behave in a similar way at home.
Architect Chris Travis takes this even further. He believes that the most powerful influences our homes have on us come from our past, through associations we make subconsciously. At his design company, in Round Top, Texas, he takes an unusual approach with his clients. Instead of asking what materials they like and where they would like the windows to go, he asks about a time when they felt safe, comfortable, provided for and so on. Travis then shapes the design of the client鈥檚 house to evoke specific emotions.
鈥淓verything that you went through, positive or negative, occurs in a space,鈥� says Travis. 鈥淭hese spaces get into memories and they begin to tag and inform your perception of the world.鈥�
Psychologist Sam Gosling at the University of Texas has visited some of the homes Travis has designed and spoken to the owners. They have told Gosling that they wouldn鈥檛 change a thing about their home and that it has never felt so comfortable. Travis also finds that his first drawings hit the mark with his clients. Even so, they find it hard to acknowledge that their home knows so much about them. 鈥淭hey still resist the idea that it was their psychology that had anything to do with driving the design,鈥� says Gosling.
Read more: 鈥�The secret life of your home鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢y house made me do it鈥�
