Elsevier

Energy and Buildings

Volume 131, 1 November 2016, Pages 63-75
Energy and Buildings

The influence of personality traits on occupant behavioural patterns

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.09.019Get rights and content

Abstract

Occupant behaviour in office buildings and its driving forces have been investigated intensely. Despite huge individual differences, these analyses are mainly performed on aggregated levels. Attempts are scarce to explain underlying mechanisms which personal characteristics lead to observed differences. This study presents a unique analysis of the influence of personality traits on four types of behavioural patterns – clothing adjustments, window opening, blind closing, and interactions with a ceiling fan – and two dimensions of thermal perception – sensation and preference. As personality traits, three of the Big Five personality traits describing human personality, namely neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to new experiences, together with the concepts of general and thermo-specific self-efficacy were analysed. The data set used derived from experimental studies in a semi-controlled climate chamber with single occupied offices consisting of 65 subjects. Throughout the analysis, multivariate logistic, linear, and ordinal mixed effect model analyses were performed. According to the results, all personality traits lead to significant differences between behavioural patterns. Thermal sensation was affected significantly by extraversion, thermal preference by neuroticism, openness and thermo-specific self-efficacy. Together with additional experimental and field studies these results can form a basis for theory-driven occupant behavioural profiles used in building performance simulation.

Introduction

Occupant behaviour and its driving forces such as physical parameters of the indoor and outdoor conditions have been investigated intensely over the last decade [1], [2], [3], [4]. Huge individual differences in behavioural patterns were observed [5], [6], but seldom accounted for during the modelling process.

The attempts to account for individual differences can be grouped into data-driven or theory-driven methods. Examples for the data-driven methods are groups of active and passive occupants [7] or clusters [8], [9]. A theory-driven approach was used by Ref. [10], who investigated the effect of preferences on the usage of an air-conditioning (AC)-unit for sleeping. However, that analysis was based on a single question regarding the preference of using the AC-unit, while the field of psychology knows various concepts to categorize individuals according to specific personal traits. The advantage of theory-driven methods is that they permit to understand why there are differences between individuals or groups of individuals and not just that there are such differences. Such understanding would be helpful e.g. to account for these reasons during the design of buildings or intervention methods.

A model commonly used in academic psychology is the five factor model also known as the Big Five personality traits [11]. These are neuroticism, extraversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

A second concept is called perceived self-efficacy [12], which is based on the social cognitive theory [13]. General self-efficacy is the extent or strength of one's belief in one's own ability to complete tasks and reach goals in life successfully. In contrast, operation specific self-efficacy scales focus on one specific type of behaviour, e.g. in relation to quitting smoking [14]. The newly developed thermo-specific self-efficacy scale is an operation specific self-efficacy scale used to describe the strength of one’s belief in one’s own ability to reach thermally comfortable conditions in indoor environments [15], [16].

Personality traits have been linked to differences in smoking behaviour [17], environmental attitudes [18], and choices of transportation mode [19]. Providing feedback to promote energy efficient behaviour customized based on personality traits has been shown to have a huge potential to reduce energy consumption in households [20].

As shown above, there are relationships between behavioural patterns and personality traits. However, the authors are not aware of any application to the field of occupant behaviour in indoor environments. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore differences in behavioural patterns attributable to personality traits. The focus will be on an office environment within summerly conditions. The corresponding research question is whether there are any differences in behavioural patterns linked to personality traits. Such link would enable a theory-driven argument for observed differences in behavioural patterns or the modelling of specific types of occupants. Such modelling could be implemented into multi-agent modelling approaches for building energy performance simulations [21] or serve as a base to form personality models used in ontologies for building-related applications [22].

The focus will be on three of the big-five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to new experiences) together with the general- and thermo-specific self-efficacy. Only three of the five personality traits have been chosen because previous studies showed a relationship between them and thermal comfort [23], [24]. The effect of each of the five personality traits will be analysed for four types of behaviour (window opening, blind usage, ceiling fan usage, and clothing level) as well as two dimensions of thermal perception, namely thermal sensation and thermal preference. The null hypotheses are that there are no differences in behavioural patterns related to any of these personality traits. The alternative hypotheses are explained below and summarized in Table 1. Note that this study is meant to be explorative and that the hypotheses are therefore presenting tendencies to be expected.

According to the literature on neuroticism, people with a high level of neuroticism have a lower tolerance for stress, but feel more anxious and unassertive in daily life [11], [25]. The level of stress for the human organism increases with warm to hot conditions. Therefore, we expect those with a low level of neuroticism to have a higher tolerance for higher temperatures than their counterparts. People with a high level of neuroticism therefore may feel more uncomfortable, but react slower to increasing thermal strains by means of adjusting their clothing level or the status of windows (Hypothesis 1). In this context, “slower” means they show fewer actions and interact conduct an action at conditions with a higher thermal strain, e.g. higher indoor environmental temperatures.

Highly extrovert people are seeking attention and are more sociable, while a low level of extraversion is associated with a reflective personality [11], [26], [27]. At the same time, highly extrovert people describe themselves as confident, active, and optimistic [11]. Therefore earlier reactions, i.e. at conditions with a lower thermal strain, and a higher probability of actions are expected when the thermal strain increases (Hypothesis 2).

Openness to experience is related to curiosity, cautiousness, and preference for novelty and variety of a person. Those with a high level of openness to experience are also described as behaviourally flexible [11], [28]. Therefore, we hypothesise that this group will be more active, leading to a higher probability of behaviours. They are also more likely adapting uncommon behaviours offered to influence the indoor climate (Hypothesis 3). As it is extremely rare to have ceiling fans in German office buildings, the usage of the ceiling fan is an example for such uncommon behaviour.

People with high general perceived self-efficacy have a good ability to cope with daily hassles and to adapt to all kinds of stressful life events [29]. Therefore they react faster to avoid excessive thermal stress. A high level of general self-efficacy will be related to a higher probability of actions (Hypothesis 4). However, we expect the difference to be less pronounced compared to that for the thermo-specific self-efficacy.

Occupants with a high thermo-specific self-efficacy have a higher acceptance of warm conditions and state a lower (cooler) sensation under summer conditions compared to those with a low thermo-specific self-efficacy [15], [16]. Therefore, we hypothesise that those with a low thermo-specific self-efficacy start to feel uncomfortable earlier, i.e. at conditions imposing a lower thermal stress. As a consequence, they are more likely to adjust their clothing level or one of the available control opportunities like windows (Hypothesis 5).

Section snippets

Dataset used

The data taken for these analyses was derived from three experimental studies in a semi-controlled climate chamber [30], [31], [32]. This test facility allows a tight control of indoor conditions according to a pre-set protocol, while giving the subjects (i.e. occupants) control over operable windows to the exterior, external Venetian blinds, and a ceiling fan.

For the analyses presented in this paper, only sessions with single occupied offices were considered. This led to a database of 65

Results and discussion of mixed effect regression analysis

In the following, the results of the logistic, linear and ordinal mixed effect regression analyses are shown. Table 7 presents the characteristics of the models without personality traits, which were denoted above as m0. All coefficients except Iout in the fan usage model are significant at p < 0.05. The VIF’s are all below the value of 5, so that there is no problem of collinearity. AIC and BIC-values are given for comparison with the models including the personality traits presented in the

Limitations

The purpose of experimental designs is to determine the influence of factors in a controlled environment. In general, the results presented above showed that such experiments are also suitable to extract influencing factors on behavioural patterns. Still, this study was not intended to be representative. The number of subjects and the selection of young students was the biggest limitation with respect to representativeness. According to Bischof et al. [58], this age group is having a higher

Conclusions

This study presents a unique analysis of the influence of personality traits on behavioural patterns and thermal perception. As personality traits, three (neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to new experiences) of the Big Five personality traits, measured by NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), as well as general and thermo-specific self-efficacy were analysed.

These concepts were applied to behavioural patterns with respect to clothing adjustments, window opening behaviour, blinds

Acknowledgements

The experimental studies in the test facility LOBSTER were funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) with the project ID: 0327241C. The test facility LOBSTER was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) with the project ID: 03ET1035B and supported by industrial partners. The analysis was conducted within the framework of the project ValMoNuI funded by the BMWi with the project ID: 03ET1289B. Further support was gained through

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