“Irrational” Vs “Rational" Behavior: Using Evolutionary Theory & Comprehensive Evaluations to Ensure Building Performance Meets Design Intent

Psychologist Kurt Lewin once described behavior as a function of the individual and the environment. Expanding on this, individual and collective behaviors can be seen as focused on meeting individual and group needs within a given social/cultural and physical environmental context, needs which are shaped by human physiological, psychological and social/cultural factors. And behaviors that are sometimes classified as “irrational” in the narrow economic sense of the word can be quite “rational” if examined using a different set of parameters. For example, an individual’s clothing choice may seem completely “irrational” if the clothing lacks sufficient insulation to keep the individual warm in an overcooled space, particularly if a space heater (and additional energy) is subsequently used to maintain thermal comfort. But this behavior may be completely rational when considering the use of clothing to signal group identity, status, sexuality or to conform to other norms of dress. An evolutionary multi-level selection (MLS) framework may be a more useful way to frame this. Whether or not the choice of clothing is “functional,” “non-functional,” or “neutral” depends on who the subject is (the individual or a larger group), and with respect to what (individual reproductive success, group unity and longevity, etc.). Clothing choice may be functional with respect to signaling individual status but the choice combined with space heater usage may be non-functional with respect to an organization’s efficiency/longevity (via productivity and utility costs) and societal efficiency/longevity (via greenhouse gas emissions). So if behavior is a function of the individual/group and the environment, the creation of truly sustainable, productive and healthy environments requires an understanding of how the relationships among individual/group behavior, their needs and the physical/social/cultural environment play out contextually on a project by project basis. Otherwise alignment won’t be achieved between the plethora of goals and needs of the various individuals and levels of groups involved, from occupants to O&M staff to building owner to the community at large. Without alignment, building performance and occupant productivity and health suffer and do not meet design intent. The only way to achieve alignment is to a) thoroughly engage the key stakeholders involved (including the occupant) from master planning through occupancy and b) comprehensively evaluate built environment experiments after occupancy to verify what’s working, what isn’t and why, so adjustments can be made to existing facilities and their operations and organizations, as well as apply the lessons learned to future projects. In this paper I will a) examine behaviors within the built environment from an MLS perspective and b) discuss methods for comprehensively evaluating building/occupant interrelationships, drawing from multiple master planning and post occRead less