When Walls Talk: People Make Social Inferences From Towns’ Protective Features

Human towns are shaped by intentional design. Here we ask whether people use societal features to make social inferences, specifically focusing on how the presence of protective architectural features influences people’s intuitions about towns’ residents. U.S. adults (N = 100) were presented with two novel societies – a ‘protected’ town with walls, locks, and gates, and an ‘unprotected’ town lacking such features. We manipulated whether residents had chosen or been randomly assigned where to live. Across both conditions, people judged that unprotected society residents felt safer, happier, and were nicer; and that protected society residents dressed more similarly, stayed inside more, and had more rules. Most people preferred to live in the unprotected society. Positive attributions and preference for the unprotected society were associated with liberal (vs. conservative) political affiliation. Overall, we show that people use the physical features of built environments to make social inferences about residents’ behaviors, traits, and mental states.