Relationship between Environmental Familiarity and Environmental Preference

42 subjects rated forest, large city, beach, desert, and small town. A 19-item semantic differential gave subscores of evaluation, spirituality, activity, and esthetic appeal. Ratings of environmental familiarity and importance of time in the environment were obtained. Correlations between the subscores and ratings of familiarity and importance indicated that evaluation (not spirituality, activity, and esthetic appeal) was correlated with familiarity across environments. Quality of time in an environment was also related to evaluation across all environments. Other correlations indicated that importance of time was related to ratings of other aspects of the environment. However, these relationships were specific to particular environments.