ABSTRACT
It is often suggested that the design and structural aspects of indoor shopping and consumption environments can affect people’s thought processes and responses (e.g., Bechtel, 1997). Nevertheless, our current understanding remains extremely limited about (a) which structural aspects of our environment may be influential, (b) exactly how, why, and when they exert an effect on us, and (c) what consequences these factors have on the many perceptions, judgments, and decisions that we form daily. Two significant factors underlie this gap: the minimal attention paid to structural factors of indoor environments, and the lack of theory-guided investigation that might illuminate answers to these questions. This chapter endeavors to address these barriers and shed light on these questions by drawing on theory and applying it to a wide range of potentially consequential indoor structural elements, particularly ones present in most shopping environments.
