Abstract
When people behave in an environment, they comprehend the environment and determine an appropriate action, after considering the meanings of the environment and constraints attached with it. The present study focused on one of such environmental comprehension process, environmental inference and a subsequent process, decision making in environments. The study used 27 photos of various restaurant facades as stimuli and 154 university students as subjects. The subjects were asked to infer 3 actual facts (price, customers' sex, size of customer groups) and 12 rather subjective characters of each restaurant and rate their comfort to enter the restaurant from its facade photo projected on the wide screen. Results showed that the subjects could infer 3 actual facts correctly to a certain extent. One structural equation model revealed the factors of 'fit to me' and 'quality of restaurant' positively influence decision making while 'luxury' negatively influences it. However, 'luxury' also positively influences 'quality of restaurant'. That is, 'luxury' directly influences decision making in a negative fashion and it indirectly, through a positive influence on 'quality of restaurant', influence decision making in a positive fashion. Finally, limitations of the study and directions of future studies were discussed.
