I am a New Age skeptic. I used to be a New Age cynic, so this change shows how far I have come in opening my mind to things I do not understand. I no longer dismiss channeling and crystals and acupuncture as so much hocus-pocus, nor do I embrace these practices. I simply await proof.

I have to admit, though, that there is one New Age practice that has always had some intuitive appeal to me, and that’s feng shui. Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of placement, which is based on the belief that space and distance and the arrangement of objects can affect our emotions and our sense of well-being. This idea makes sense to me on a gut level: I know that I feel a greater sense of psychological equilibrium in some spaces than I do in others. I just do not know why.

Psychologists have some ideas about this connection among physical space and thought and emotion—or what they call “psychological distance.” We have all had the sensation of being “too close” to a situation, needing to “get away” and “putting some distance” between ourselves and others. Our sense of emotional connectedness (or lack of it) is tightly entangled with our perception of geography and patterns in space.

Feel Crowded?
Two Yale University psychologists decided to explore the power of these perceptions in the laboratory, to see if indeed an ordered, open space affects people’s emotions differently than a tighter, more closed-in environment does. Put another way, do we automatically embody and “feel” things such as crowding or spaciousness, clutter or order?

Lawrence E. Williams and John A. Bargh ran a series of experiments to explore this question. All the studies began with what is called priming—the use of a cue to create an unconscious attitude or sensation. The researchers used a simple but effective technique: they had respondents graph two points, just as a person would on an ordinary piece of graph paper. In some graphs the points were very close together (for example: coordinates 2, 4 and –3, –1), whereas in others they were far apart (12, 10 and –11, –8). This exercise is known to bolster people’s unconscious feeling of either congestion or wide-open spaces.

Then the researchers tested the subjects in various ways. For example, in one study they had the participants read an embarrassing excerpt from a book, then asked them questions such as whether the passage was enjoyable or entertaining and whether they would like to read more of the same. Williams and Bargh wanted to see if a sense of psychological distance or freedom might mute emotional discomfort, and that result is exactly what they found. The volunteers who had been primed for spaciousness were less discomfited by the embarrassing experience; they found it much more enjoyable than did those who had a more pinched perception of the world.

The psychologists ran another version of the same experiment, in which the book excerpt was extremely violent rather than embarrassing. They got the same basic results. Subjects who had been primed for closeness found the violent events much more aversive—just as we find an airplane crash in our own neighborhood more upsetting than a crash 3,000 miles away. ­Williams and Bargh believe this tendency has to do with the brain’s deep-wired connec­tion between distance and safety, a habit of mind that probably evolved to help our hominid forebears survive in precarious conditions.

Peril and Distance
The psychologists wanted to explore more directly this link between psychological distance and real peril. As described in the March Psychological Science, they primed the participants’ minds in the usual way, then had them estimate the number of calories in both healthy food and junk food. They reasoned that the calories in french fries and chocolate are perceived as a health threat—emotionally dangerous—whereas the calories in brown rice and yogurt are not, and that people primed for closeness would be more sensitive to the threat. And that is what they found: those people who had been made to feel crowded and closed in thought there were more calories in junk food than did those who felt open and free. The two groups’ perceptions of healthy food were identical.

11 Comments

1. 1. Quasimodo 03:37 AM 8/14/08

   There's a whopping big difference between the effects of living space dimensions and that crystal and channeling garbage. Acupuncture also has its real live merits. Being able to differentiate spit from shinola is an important ability. It appears to be a vanishing art.

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2. 2. Quasimodo 11:48 AM 8/14/08

   Oh....Good Article! Bravo/va.

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3. 3. MKandefer 05:03 PM 8/14/08

   It's dishonest to suggest that studies showing a correlation between spatial arrangements on graph paper and emotional mood provide evidence for a mystical belief such as Feng shui. You describe Feng shui as "the ancient Chinese art of placement, which is based on the belief that space and distance and the arrangement of objects can affect our emotions and our sense of well-being." However, this is not an accurate description of Feng shui. A more appropriate description of Feng shui is the ancient Chinese practice of placement in order to influence the flow of positive "qi" for gain in prosperity, which is seen as an increase in emotion, wealth, and personal relationships. These experiments do nothing to show an increase in prosperity in emotional attitude, wealth, or personal relationships, they just suggest that perceptual distance makes individuals feel more emotionally distant. It certainly doesn't establish that an increase in positive "qi" is responsible for the emotional distance.
   
   Recasting of acupuncture is done in similar light. Acupuncture is not the mere incision of filiform needles into the skin in order to establish the sense of heath improvement or pain relief. It is the incision of filiform needles in order to remove blockages in "qi" flow throughout the body's "meridians" in order to cure any ailment, as these blockages are seen as the cause of all disease. There have been some studies that support a placebo effect with acupuncture-like treatments, sometimes called "sham acupuncture", but this does not establish evidence for acupuncture itself, which describes specific meridian regions through which "qi" flows. To claim that such studies show evidence for acupuncture is to shift the goal posts of the original acupuncture hypothesis.
   
   Perhaps next you'll suggest that because consumption of water is necessary for personal health, evidence for homeopathy is on the rise?

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4. 4. Sciencenow 09:47 PM 8/14/08

   Mkandelfer
   
   You question and only offer dismissal. (Which is more than the skepticism Wray has come to embrace) Your comparison to "sham" accupuncture is also misleading. In the truest sense, accupuncture has been shown as an effective therapy in many instances in a ramdomized clinical setting. Do you assert that western methods are incapable of quantifying eastern therapy? This would pose an immense problem.

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5. 5. Tan Boon Tee 10:09 PM 8/14/08

   Do not read too much into the ‘pseudo-science’ of Feng Shui, lest one gets entangled in a wild pursuit of conjectures and speculative arguments.
   
   While the ‘psychological distance’ may have its conceptual value, to link it with the ancient yet mystical art of Feng Shui could well be premature, let alone using it to help explaining the latter.
   
   Verily, many people would want to shun crowded places, and keeping a distance from one another appears to be the norm of living. To some extent, Feng Shui does attempt to relate space to human feelings, and the placement of objects in the surrounding can affect one’s emotion. But there are no fixed rules. It all depends on who is doing the talking. (Tan Boon Tee)
   

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6. 6. spiritual droplet 09:05 AM 8/15/08

   According to the conception of feng shui, one make a decision to lay out his room, and try to avert some ominous things.
   In fact, a opening space helps one staying in it keep a relaxed mood. whether reading or working in a spacious room, one will feel much more easy and cosy to cope with same chores than do those who stays in a crowded space.

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7. 7. MKandefer in reply to Sciencenow 09:59 AM 8/15/08

   Sciencenow said: "Mkandelfer You question and only offer dismissal. (Which is more than the skepticism Wray has come to embrace). "
   
   I'm not certain what skepticism Wray has embraced, so I can't comment. I dismissed his definition of Feng shui, and provided a more accurate one. Are you suggesting that New Age practitioners of Feng Shui don't believe it has to do with manipulating "qi" flow in order to accumulate greater prosperity? That they instead believe that the environment influences cognition, as psychologists have for sometime now, and that such manipulations have nothing to do with ancient vitalistic concepts?
   
   You also said, "Your comparison to "sham" accupuncture is also misleading." Why do you you think so?
   
   You then went on to claim, "In the truest sense, accupuncture has been shown as an effective therapy in many instances in a ramdomized clinical setting. " It's an an effective therapy for what? Which trials have shown this?
   
   You then concluded with the remarks, "Do you assert that western methods are incapable of quantifying eastern therapy? This would pose an immense problem." I don't place a distinction between western and eastern medicine. There is only medicine. There are plenty of western methods that suffer the same problems that acupuncture does in terms of biological plausibility and proof of effectiveness (see homeopathy).

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8. 8. promytius 10:36 PM 8/17/08

   To suggest that ANY one perspective is superior to another is to deny the vast differences in humans. One man's trash... etc. Stress itself is a biological motivator, not a fundamentally evil force. Stress can be very healthy. Disequilibrium is probably the best state of mind for learning. Which way my front door faces is a function of carpentry, and nothing else.

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9. 9. busy bee 11:41 AM 8/21/08

   Wray, sorry to say that you haven't done a very good job in paraphrasing what "Feng shui" really is. According to Wikipedia, "Feng shui is an ancient Chinese practice believed to utilize the Laws of both heaven (astronomy) and earth (geography) to help one improve life by receiving positive Qi- [quoting Marie, Tina (2007). "Feng Shui Facts.". What is Feng Shui?].
   
   
   In addition, it also states that "Many modern enthusiasts claim that feng shui is the practice of arranging objects (such as furniture) to help people achieve their goals. More traditionally, feng shui is important in choosing a place to live and finding a burial site, along with agricultural planning."
   
   Seems like it hardly deals with the "physical space and emotions", does it?
   
   

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10. 10. Blueshadow 10:42 AM 9/27/08

    I am curious about the techniques used by Williams and Bargh. Since I do not have access to the article quoted, can someone help me. The use of double blind testing is crucial as we know that subtle queues can be easily transferred. ... Thanks.

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11. 11. francoskeptic in reply to MKandefer 09:32 PM 10/22/08

    I agree totaly with this view. My understanding is that no reputable large double blind studies have shown Accupuncture to be effective.
    Here is a good a article:
    
    http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/08-10-08.html#feature

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