HOME AND IDENTITY DISPLAY - INTERPRETING RESIDENT TERRITORIALITY FROMHOME EXTERIORS

Although theory and research suggest that resident territorial commitm ent relates to home personalization and maintenance, it is uncertain w hether naive observers can ordinarily perceive this commitment when lo oking at the home. In three experiments, judges were shown photographs of the front exteriors of homes owned by residents reporting strong o r weak territorial commitments to their home and to their block. Acros s all three experiments judges were able to identify residents reporti ng territorial commitments, but were unable to discern whether this co mmitment was directed solely at the home, solely at the block, or at b oth the home and block. In experiment 2 a content analysis was conduct ed on the cues judges reported using in making their decisions about r esident commitment. These data suggest that judges are unable to disti nguish between home and block commitments because they often use the s ame set of cues to judge both types of commitment. Experiment 3 ruled out the possibility that block judgments echo home judgments simply be cause judges have no information about the block; even after judges ar e given a view of adjacent homes, block judgments do not increase in d istinctiveness. The present study strengthens the claim that homes can accurately communicate resident territoriality, which can be importan t for those interested in interpreting or encouraging commitments to h ome and blocks (C) Academic Press Limited