Consensus in landscape preference judgements

This study explores three possible explanations to account for variability in preference judgements for particular landscape scenes. Variance is exami ned and discussed in relation to the level of preference/scenic quality, in relation to possible group differences, and in relation to mental represen tations of the landscape type in the visual stimuli. The scenes in the stud y are from a specific, marketed and positively loaded landscape type, the f armland grasslands in the Swedish traditional cultural landscape. It is sug gested that a strong commonly shared mental representation exists for this landscape type, resulting in quick and holistic judgements of preference an d high consensus for scenes judged as good examples of this landscape type. An effect of scenic quality on variability was also found with results sho wing higher consensus for the high preference landscapes than for the low p reference landscapes. However, this effect is possibly connected to the pos itive image of the landscape type pasture. No effect was found of group dif ferences in responses accounting for the variability. (C) 2001 Academic Pre ss.