Mohsen Dehghani Tafti, P.H. D student will complete his P.H. D thesis on “The Role of Human Personality in Architectural Visual Preferences: Towards a Pleasant Architecture" July, 21th 2019- 11:00 am The Amphitheatre of ShahidMaddah.

Supervisors: Dr. Gholamhossein Memarian, Dr. Farhang Mozaffar

Abstract
Human beings are exposed to different environments on a daily basis and are always influenced by them or play a role in creating and changing them. The more the man-made environment is aligned with the individual characteristics of human beings and unpleasant elements are eliminated, the degree of pleasantness of the environment and the pleasure of the individual increases. The question that is posed in this study is identification of the relationship between the personality of human beings (as one of the individual differences) and architectural preferences and how one can find this relationship.
This study has delved into predicting the visual preferences in architecture which are proportionate to the individuals' personality characteristics using a quantitative and qualitative approach in methodology. The aesthetic variables of the study are ‘color contrast’, ‘degree of abstractness-concreteness’, and ‘spatial openness’. Execution of the research was carried out using the display method in the form of online test. To gather the data on psychological responses, the participants were exposed to various architectural visual stimuli. The instruments used to gather the data, various questionnaire were utilized in simultaneous, planned, and orderly fashion in an online environment. To analyze the data, data mining, and WEKA and Mat Lab software were used. Then the data set was analyzed various regression and classifier models.
The results of the study indicated that, among the non-experts, the individual benefiting from a high degree of Stability as well as high degree of Openness to Experience are attracted to photos with higher level of abstractness. In addition, people with Introvert personality, unlike the other members of the society, prefer architectural photos with high color-contrast and lower spatial openness and selected the popular style in architecture. The Extraverts, on the other hand, preferred architectural photos with high spatial openness. Moreover, the female Extraverts preferred photos with high spatial openness than did their male counterparts.
This dissertation is one of the first researches that has obtained a significant relationship between personality and architectural visual preferences. Therefore, the methodology and the techniques used in it, using a systematic quadruple model in designing research and data mining in analyzing the data, could offer a new approach to the researchers who choose to carry out studies related to architectural preferences.
 
Keywords: Architectural visual preferences, Personality traits, Systematic quadruple model, Aesthetic response, Data mining