Sample of 2364 apartment buildings in 48 US states: 60% of names contained nature words, 6% contained nature-analogous, and only 32% contained non-nature words

Home is where the nature is: A content analysis of apartment complexes. Rebecka Hahnel, Aaron Goetz. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019. http://tiny.cc/aa1w6y

Abstract: Natural selection resulted in human’s evolved preferences and motivations to seek landscapes that provide lush resources while avoiding life-threatening risks (Orians, 1980). These evolved preferences may influence several aspects of modernday society—including how we manipulate our urban environment. In our study, we explored the relationship between evolved landscape preferences and naming conventions of new constructions—specifically apartment complexes. We hypothesized there would be more nature words in apartment complex names than non-nature words. A content analysis of 2,364 names of apartment buildings was conducted utilizing a program that makes use of Google Maps to gather names from each of the 48 contiguous states of the United States of America. Each apartment name was rated as having nature words (e.g., river, arbor), nature-analogous words (e.g., summer, ranch), or non-nature words (e.g., 4th street, Washington). Sixty percent (n = 1428) of apartment buildings contained nature words, 6% (n = 158) contained nature-analogous, and only 32% (n =807) contained non-nature words (ꭕ2 (2, 2364) = 606.550, p < 0.001). Results supported our hypothesis that there are statistically more nature words than non-nature words in the names of apartment buildings. Our landscape preferences may affect how developers name our homesteads—exploiting our biophilia.