Exploring the
Validity of Feng Shui in Terms of Psychological Well-being
How viewing a bedroom designed in various levels of feng shui has an impact on the viewer’s mood and cognition
AP Research
Word Count: 3,306
Introduction
Since its origins in China over 2000 years ago, feng shui has been in use both in East Asia and more recently, North America and Europe. The recent growth in utilizing feng shui in interior design has led to an interest in categorizing and defining the values within it. Feng shui aims to balance the flow of positive and negative energy between spaces or landscapes and the elements around it. Feng shui attempts to organize this energy flow and give guidelines on how to direct it in ways that provide positive both mental and physiological benefits towards the people that exist within that environment. While feng shui can be applied to both the environment, building placement, and interior placement, this paper will be focusing on the interior, specifically the bedroom. Chi flow can have a significant impact on the sleep, and therefore health, of the person within it, so it is of the most interest to determine the impact of feng shui on bedroom design. The design elements that impact the energy flow include the furniture, windows, lighting, and interior/exterior features. Because of this focus on enigmatic energy flows, research into the validity of feng shui has been slow. But as its popularity in modern design has been increasing, so has the need for an empirical study into the different rules of feng shui and their impact on the psychological health. While several papers have attempted to investigate this topic, their research focuses on different aspects of feng shui, such as landscapes, consistency of rules, or do not attempt to correlate feng shui design with an impact on mood and cognition. This paper attempts to find a relationship between mood/cognition and viewing a 3D model of bedrooms designed with various levels of feng shui according to 5 different criteria. The hope of this study is to provide a baseline evaluation that can be used to further investigate the influence of feng shui on individual’s psychological health and contribute to the small but growing library of empirical data on feng shui in hopes that it will become more widespread.
Literature Review
The idea of designing spaces to influence mood encompasses more than just feng shui. Various studies have been published on how architecture can play a role in communicating a message, affect how people interact, and be biased towards certain social groups or values (Shah and Kesan, 2007). The study of environment and human comfort has been coined with the modern term of environmental psychology, defined by as a branch of psychology that evaluates the relationship between the external environment and humans (Russel and Snodgrass, 1987). Like feng shui, environmental psychological has branches in both landscapes and architecture, specifically a branch of research known as spatial behavior, which evaluates social development based on the influence of the surroundings. This is based off 4 main points of study, which include the individual’s own evaluation of the environment, the environmental features that cause reactions, the social influences that cause of the individual’s reaction, and how the individual’s own mood or cognition can impact their evaluation. The most heavily debated area within these points is the reliability of the individual’s own evaluation (Bonaiuto, 2004). The empirical study of environmental psychology uses a variety of tools to assess this person-environment relationship, including self-reporting surveys and rating scales.
While feng shui also examines the relationship between people and their environment, it is much more undefined when examining the empirical tools used to study it. Like environmental psychology, the main tools used to examine it have been surveys and other rating methods. However, the issue with feng shui is the focus on energy, or chi, and the importance of its flow within the environment
Quantitatively measuring chi is an issue that early research attempted to solve and have even compared chi to geomagnetic waves or geopathogenic zones, however issues persist with this direction of research, and little is agreed upon (Bonaiuto, 2010). So instead of focusing on the enigmatic energy flow, more attention is given to consistency between feng shui practitioners and the impact of feng shui space on people through surveys. When it comes to the empirical data on feng shui, only 36 articles were recorded in 2009 as having quantitative data reliable enough for a meta-study (Han and Lin, 2009). From these articles however, there was strong reliability in agreeing with architects (Mak and Ng, 2005) and reliability in identifying environments with good feng shui (Han, 2015). Consistently, environments with good feng shui were deemed more suitable for people than those with
bad feng shui. This includes factors such as air quality, sunlight, and other geographical features (Han and Lo, 2012). However, reliability in identifying good feng shui environments and agreement with architectural practices does not prove that there is a science behind feng shui, or that it is valid with respect to its impact on human emotions and mood. In addition, the two studies within the meta-study that focused specifically on psychological impacts of feng shui interiors both selected health care facilities as the interior to be studied instead of residences, the area of most relevance to this study. Out of these studies, one failed to see any improvement in the well-being of nurses living in critical care facilities (Charles et al. 2017), but the other determined patients preferred the feng shui designed medical facility waiting area (Bazley et al. 2016). Without clear data backing up interior decision making inside medical facilities, much less residences, there lies a serious gap in the literature on the psychological impact of feng shui residences
Within the sparse scholarly research on residential feng shui rules, several common features of rooms are consistently found. There is a special focus on entrances, windows, mirrors, corners, and specifically in bedrooms, the bed. Color is also considered in several papers but lacks the consistency of the aforementioned. Colors like red were designated as both a color for political power (Bonaiuto, 2010) and a color for living rooms (Hani, 2018). Color is often associated with the 5 feng shui elements, an aspect of feng shui that has not been thoroughly research enough for consideration within this paper, especially within residential spaces. The most common advice about color was to choose neutral, earthy tones for residences, however, there has been insufficient scholarly work to back up that claim. The front entrance has been emphasized as one of, if not the most important factors in energy flow throughout the house (Hani, 2018). Similarly, doors leading into residential rooms such as bedrooms cause the most influx of chi, both positive and negative. As this study focuses on just one part of the interior, the bedroom, we will be focusing exclusively on interior designs relevant to this space. This means that the bed will the central focus the space is designed around. Although the door is one of most significant contributors of chi to an interior, it only matters where it is placed in context of the bed. According to Chen Wang, head of the department of construction management at the National Huaqiao University, 93.3% of architects in their experiment placed the door to the bedroom in a “positive” feng shui location, being diagonally from the bed. This shows that there is some reliability within feng shui and actual architectural
practices, hinting at a more scientific aspect of feng shui. Additionally, the same study investigated the reliability of windows, sharp corners, mirrors, and bed placement itself, all within the bedroom. The clear criteria surrounding the placements of each of these within the study means it Is possible to reproduce a room with all 5 of these criteria in “perfect” feng shui.
Methodology
This study will use a before and after experimental design, modeled after Professor Ke-Tsung Han’s of the Nation Chin-Yi University Han’s landmark study on the empirical impact of feng shui landscapes on psychological wellbeing allowed specific quantitative data to be associated with moods impacted by feng shui landscapes. Although this experiment will be focusing on interiors instead of exteriors, it is for the sake of analyzing existing literature that it is recommended to utilize preexisting or standardized experimental designs (Han and Lin, 2009). It was also recommended to only focus on specific aspects of feng shui, which is why this paper singles out 5 specific aspects of feng shui within bedrooms to analyze.
Twelve volunteers were selected using convenience sampling, all seniors from a single high school near Indianapolis. All the individuals signed consent forms but were not informed they were participating in a study on feng shui until after the study concluded to prevent bias. While participants of east Asian origins were avoided in Han’s 2006 study for bias in recognizing feng shui designs, they were not avoided in this study because of the nature of the convenience sampling methods. The twelve individuals were randomly split into six groups of two, where each group of two would be randomly given one of six different models, with the bedroom following none, to all five, feng shui criteria as defined by Wang, Hong, and Abdul-Rahman’s 2018 study. Due to limitations that will be explored further, the optimal way for this paper to explore the impact of these 5 main criteria on subjects is to utilize a 3D modeling software. This software will allow the subject to have a more realistic view of the room while managing the limitations of the paper. This method approximates a 360° panorama of an environment, which has been shown to have the best psychological outcome scores when compared to VR and static images (HigueraTrujillo et al. 2017).
The 3D model was designed based off a preliminary survey done with six volunteers. The volunteers were selected with convenience sampling out of the same population of high school seniors. They were asked to fill out one online survey consisting of 11 of the most popular interior design styles, using data from google search trends to select the styles, and using the discretion of the researcher to select the specific photos that represent the style. The subjects were then asked to rank their favorite 3 interior design styles. The design style that would be used in the 3D model would be selected by the design style that had the highest percentage of both being selected as one of the top 3 favorites and having the highest percentage of votes for favorite style. The most selected style, Zen, was selected in 83.3% of top 3 favorites, and was selected as the favorite style 50% of the time, garnering the highest proportion of both criteria, with the second highest proportion belonging to Scandinavian, with it being selected 66.7% of the time in top 3 styles, and 16.7% of the time in favorite style. The purpose of this preliminary study was to eliminate confounding error within the main study, which could potentially cause bias by a subject heavily disliking a specific interior design style and having a psychological reaction to that preference instead of the intended feng shui factors. Due to the limitations of the study, it was not feasible to only gather subjects that had a liking for a specific interior style or create multiple versions of the bedroom in multiple styles.
For the 3D models, six different models were created based off the five criteria identified by Chen’s 2018 paper on the reliability of the placement of the bed, window, door, sharp corners, and the mirror. The models were organized using a color palette typical of zen interiors, as well as minimal furnishing in accordance with the style (Zhang, 2021). The furniture and color palette remained constant throughout the different models, with only the placement of each of the 5 criteria changing. The first model followed each of the criteria, and the next adjusted only the mirror position. While over half of architects placed the mirror in a positive feng shui position, it was the least reliable of the 5 criteria, with a rate of 56.7% plans proposed by the architects matching feng shui designs (Chen, 2018). The models then continue this pattern, keeping the previous change made in the previous model. This compounds the removal of positive feng shui criteria in the order of least statistically reliable to most, with the reliability of the mirror, sharp corner, door, window, and bed position having a reliability of 56.7%, 70%, 93.3%, 96.7%, and 96.7%, respectfully. The compounding effect,
Which goes from completely positive to completely neutral, was done to examine whether there would be a greater positive psychological change when shown the room with more positive feng shui criteria, with a trend that the fewer positive feng shui criteria, the worse the psychological change. The order was selected to account for the reliability, which is an appropriate strategy considering the issue with reliability that already exists within image-based research (Neil and Warren, 1997).
The survey given to them was modeled after Han’s 2006 study, in which five moods and two states of cognition were measured. The five different moods were measured off five pairs of words, elated-depressed, energeticfatigued, good natured-grouchy, confident-unsure, and relaxed-anxious. These pairs originate from a semantic differential scale (Lorr and Wunderlich, 1988). The two states of cognition, interest, and attentiveness were selected from Zuckerman’s 1997 paper on the Zuckerman Inventory of Personal Reactions. Each of the measures of mood and cognition were randomly ordered for each participant, both in the survey before and the survey after. The participant was asked to fill out a 9-point Likert scale for each, which has been proven to be a reliable method of survey (Louangrath, 2018). The students were first asked to volunteer in this experiment, and when they accepted, given the first survey in approximately the same environment, with any amount of time needed to fill it out. After they submitted the first survey, one of the randomly selected 3D models was given to them at the same time as the second, identical survey that was randomized again. They were told to take as much time as needed to both view and fill out the second survey while looking at the 3D model shown, which was set to rotate the view around the room. It took approximately 5 minutes to complete both the first and second survey per person.
Results
Each of the mood pairs and cognition values taken before in each 3D survey were compared to each other using a one-way ANOVA test, the recommended test when comparing means from multiple groups (Kim, 2017). The mood pairs were calculated by finding the difference between the positive mood and the negative mood in each pair. Taking the ANOVA test for each mood pair and
cognition value between groups, the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.5), so it can be assumed the mood pairs and cognition averages for all groups before viewing the 3D are equivalent. The before and after for each group’s mean values for mood pairs and cognition were compared using a paired T-test combining each of the seven factors to determine statistical significance in their difference. The difference in means, standard deviation of the difference in means, significance value (p), and Cohen’s effect (d) are then calculated and shown. This study uses a medium (d>0.5) size for Cohen’s effect to provide additional statistical support that the p-value alone does not provide (Sullivan and Feinn, 2012).
5/5 Criteria Model
4/5 Criteria Model
3/5 Criteria Model
2/5 Criteria Model
1/5 Criteria Model
0/5 Criteria Model
Data Table I: Each of the six models 5 moods pairs and 2 levels of cognition are shown with the average score for each. These means are then compared to the post-viewing average levels for each, and total means that average each of these are listed at the bottom. The difference in these means, standard deviation (SD), p-value, and Cohen’s value (d) are given to the side for each respective model.
Discussion
Among the 6 different models, only two (5/5 and 4/5) failed to reach statistical significance in proving there was a significant difference from the means before and after viewing the respective models. And while they did not all reach statistical significance; every single model was shown to have a greater or equal mean after compared to before. Despite having greater positive feng shui features, there was the lowest difference in the two highest criteria, and a greater difference around model 3/5 and model 0/5, disproving the initial hypothesis that the more positive criteria, the higher the difference between the postviewing and pre-viewing of the models.
Model: Difference in means:
5/5 Model 0
4/5 Model 0.2413
3/5 Model 1.6429
2/5 Model 0.7143
1/5 Model 0.9286
0/5 Model 2
Data Table II: Compilation of each difference in before/after means for each model
Limitations
While statistical significance was met in over 50% of the experiments, the predicted outcome was not met, with several underlying possibilities. In terms of feng shui quality, while specific criteria and guidelines were followed as close as possible, the models were unable to be verified by multiple feng shui practitioners, a practice common to verify feng shui levels (Han, 2006). The inability to verify the criteria in ways that might be unexpected or unintended by the researcher could lead to variances the actual ranking of feng shui then the rating out of five shown above. Additionally, the difference in rating between rooms might have been not significant enough based off only the five criteria. Additional measures of reliability and verification should be implemented in future studies like this one, as models verified in this way might provide more significant data when compared to each other. Going further, negative feng shui qualities could be introduced into models to provide a clearer comparison between models with positive feng shui criteria, those with neutral feng shui, and those with negative. The initial reliability of the five criteria measured is also a potential issue, with the range of reliability going from 56.7% to 96.7%. The selection of criteria could be evaluated in a future study, and a paper
detailing specific impacts of different feng shui criteria is heavily encouraged by the author to facilitate more research into feng shui interior design.
The preliminary survey done to assess the preferences of different interior design styles by utilizing search trends could lead to unfounded conclusions. Google search trends have been used in research, and with some validity, however reproduction of specific trends can be unreliable, and conclusions based off the data must be handled carefully (Rovetta, 2021). The inability to preview participants on the interior design preferences and select of organize multiple models according to those preferences is an option that was also unable to be explored in this paper due to the resources available. A wider selection of models would provide a greater reliability for the conclusions made in this study.
Conclusions
While several potential biases may have occurred during the research, the methodology used was chosen because of its previous reliability (Han, 2006), to reduce bias as much as possible. Additionally, the comparison of difference in means counteracts the paper’s initial hypothesis Despite these limitations, statistical significance was reached in 4 out of 6 experimental models. Since this occurred, and with the feng shui criteria never causing a decrease in mood pair values or cognition, a conclusion can be reached that these 5 feng shui criteria, namely the placement of the bed, mirror, door, window, and sharp corners, cause an increase in psychological health for seniors in a high school near Indianapolis like my population. This study can serve as a baseline for further research into this subject, including investigating the impact of different rooms based on different criteria. The methodology outlined in this study, with the improvements suggested in the limitations, could be replicated with various changes, adding consistency to the small library of empirical investigations into feng shui. This paper could also encourage more use of feng shui in residential buildings, providing evidence there is a statistically significant increase in mood and cognition based on viewing a feng shui designed room.
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