The impact of immediate urban environments on people’s momentary happiness

Abstract

The research interest of urban researchers and geographers in the relationship between urban environments and happiness has been increasing. Previous studies have mostly focused on people’s long-term overall wellbeing. However, there is limited evidence that momentary happiness is associated with immediate urban environments. This study provides new evidence on this issue. 144 participants living in Guangzhou, China, were asked to repeatedly self-report their momentary happiness through ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and the day reconstruction method (DRM). The microenvironment variables were captured by portable sensors, while the built environment variables were captured by associating the GPS response locations with objective spatial data. The results indicate that momentary happiness is influenced by immediate microenvironment variables and built environment characteristics including temperature, noise, PM2.5, population, POI density, POI types and street intersections. On the other hand, the use of different sizes of contextual units affects the results. The built environment in 100 m buffers and the microenvironment has higher explanatory power for momentary happiness recorded by EMA than the built environment in 500 m buffers. Similarly, the temporality of the contextual influences also affects the results. Urban environment features have higher explanatory power for real-time momentary happiness recorded by EMA than recalled momentary happiness recorded by DRM. These results also strongly corroborate the results of recent studies on the uncertain geographic context problem (UGCoP) and partly explain the inconsistency in the results of past research.

The relationship between happiness and quality of life: A model for Spanish society

“…There is limited evidence that momentary happiness is associated with immediate urban environments. [ 67 ] demonstrate that momentary happiness is influenced by immediate microenvironment variables and built environment characteristics, including temperature and noise. Similarly, the relationships between well-being and environmental factors are prompting a growing interest in the fields of psychology, health, conservation and economics [ 67 , 68 ].…”

“…[ 67 ] demonstrate that momentary happiness is influenced by immediate microenvironment variables and built environment characteristics, including temperature and noise. Similarly, the relationships between well-being and environmental factors are prompting a growing interest in the fields of psychology, health, conservation and economics [ 67 , 68 ]. However, the lack of attention paid to the city environment points to a need for research to understand how different aspects of the environment impact happiness over a lifetime [ 69 ].…”

A Machine-Learning Approach for Predicting Depression Through Demographic and Socioeconomic Features

“…Similarly, education level, age, and marital status have been identified as important features in mental health [8]. Furthermore, the emerging field of neurourbanism focuses on the impact of urban environments on happiness and the risk of stress and depression to individuals [9, 10]. Machine learning has recently become an effective tool for studying the impact of these factors on mental health.…”

Do Greener Urban Streets Provide Better Emotional Experiences? An Experimental Study on Chinese Tourists

“…For instance, White et al [ 27 ] used a typical longitudinal sample of UK residents with individual and regional covariates controlled and found a positive relationship between higher levels of green space in living environments and lower levels of mental distress and higher life satisfaction. Indeed, considering people’s mobility in their daily lives [ 28 , 29 ], the findings of these studies fail to capture momentary experiences over time and place [ 30 ]. As a typical dynamic and mobile behavior, tourism is a component of daily urban life [ 31 , 32 ] that interrupts the ordinary human experience [ 31 , 33 ].…”

“…As a typical dynamic and mobile behavior, tourism is a component of daily urban life [ 31 , 32 ] that interrupts the ordinary human experience [ 31 , 33 ]. According to the concept of the unusual environment [ 34 , 35 ], there are significant differences between tourists’ short-term emotional experiences in the unusual environment and residents’ long-term well-being benefits of the usual environment [ 30 , 36 , 37 ]. It is also common to view life satisfaction from a person’s cognitive evaluation of life over a long period, while emotional evaluation focuses on the short-term [ 38 , 39 ].…”