Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Airplanes – Offices Opposites

Recently, I’ve been flying a lot, and happily, I’m seeing fewer people (who aren’t employed by the airline) that seem to be working on planes.

Fewer people working on planes is good news because the physical environments on planes are about the exact opposite of those best for doing work well that requires concentration. Airplanes degrade wellbeing and moods in all sorts of ways and that means our brains aren’t fully powered to focus effectively on the task at hand. Research previously discussed here has shown that when our mood is more positive we’re better at getting along with others, making decisions, solving problems, and thinking creatively, for example.

It’s hard to say whether the lack of environmental control or the high stress levels inside planes are the biggest mid-air drags on mental performance; but, a choice between too much stress and too little control is hardly necessary because both lead to the same outcome.

When we’re working on a plane, unless we are flying in a private jet or similar really upscale style, we don’t have very many choices about where we work. We have a seat, and that’s our only workspace option. We also have little meaningful control over the ambient conditions we experience in that seat. We can try to alleviate on-plane sounds with headphones/ear buds/etc., and all that ear covering has varying levels of success. We can also adjust the knobs that control ventilation at our seats, with similar uncertain effects on making us feel better about the temperature near us and the air we’re breathing. Closing the window shade can definitively reduce on-screen glare, but closing the blind means we can’t see the daylighting and restorative/stress busting forms of puffy, fair weather clouds as we travel past them. We can’t move our seat farther from the person sitting next to us because they’re violating our preferred personal space zone size. We also can’t leave the plane midflight to look for another set of workplace options.

Lack of control onboard harms both our professional performance and our mood; it makes us feel stressed.

There are plenty of other onboard stressors. The odd sounds we hear as we travel can make us feel stressed, because they may or may not be an indication that soon our plane will plummet earthward. A person nearby may smell bad, or any food being eaten within scent range may similarly be emitting a terrible stench. Any of our sensory systems can be stressed onboard, and we probably can’t eliminate whatever is making us tense.

We’ve only been discussing working alone on the plane, because that’s all that’s ever likely to happen unless co-workers can somehow manage to snag adjoining seats. People trying to work collaboratively on planes face all of the same stressors as people trying to work alone.

There are a few special issues that are likely found only among on-airplane workers – the atmosphere inside a plane is dehydrating, for example, and dehydration isn’t good for mental performance, etc. Also, people experience a different pressure level inside a plane than they usually do when on terra firma, one which doesn’t support optimal mental work.

If you’re creating or managing an earthbound office, provide users with workplace options and other ways to control their at-work experiences; also, try to keep their stress levels in check. If a design option reminds you somehow of the coach cabin in an airplane, select the other alternative (it’s unlikely it could be worse for performance and wellbeing than the in-aircraft choice).

Sally Augustin, PhD, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com). Research Design Connections reports on research conducted by social and physical scientists that designers can apply in practice. Insights derived from recent studies are integrated with classic, still relevant findings in concise, powerful articles. Topics covered range from the cognitive, emotional, and physiological implications of sensory and other physical experiences to the alignment of culture, personality, and design, among others. Information, in everyday language, is shared in a monthly subscription newsletter, an archive of thousands of published articles, and a free daily blog. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.