16. The ofice as a relection of the inner self:
interior decoration and architecture
The director of a regulatory body works with a pistol on the table. Literally. She keeps a pistol
on the meeting table in her ofice, a model that looks like it came straight out of a western.
Fortunately it is made of porcelain and encased in plastic. For her the pistol is innocent: ‘I had
the opportunity to choose a work of art, and I thought this was really beautiful.’ But do her
visitors feel the same way?
Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony Lepe researched whether the presence of a weapon
in a room inluences behavior. The participants were subjected to the irritation of being
made to wait a long time before the experiment began, and they were subsequently
required to administer a shock to another participant. Half of the participants waited in a
room in which a weapon had been placed, as if carelessly left behind, in a corner. For the
other half a badminton racket stood in its place. The researchers registered the duration
of shocks administered by the subjects. What did they discover? In the cases where the
badminton racket had been present, the shock on average lasted a third of a second.
When there was a weapon present, the shock lasted 50 percent longer on average.
According to the researchers, objects in the environment can arouse particular behavior,
just as an innocent unloaded weapon in their experiment led to more aggression. These
objects work as stimuli: they stimulate the brain and evoke particular associations and
behavior.
The accessories in someone’s ofice can therefore inluence the behavior of visitors. A pistol
in the ofice, even a fake, could lead to more aggressive behavior on the part of visitors.
Likewise the director with a punch ball hanging in his room will have to take into account more
aggression from his visitors. And the director with a fruit machine in his room should not be
too surprised if visitors take more risks.
On the other hand, the set-up of one’s ofice says something about the inner self: about who
we are, what we consider important and how we are put together. Samuel Goslinga and
colleagues have shown that conclusions regarding a person’s character can be drawn from
16.The ofice as a relection of the inner self: interior decoration and architecture
