Running Head : PERSONALITY , MOOD , AND LANDSCAPE PREFERENCES 1 Evolution of Personality , Mood , and Landscape Preferences

The present study replicates and extends Mealey and Theis's (1993) research on the way in which moods adaptively incline individuals toward different types of landscapes. Mealey and Theis hypothesized that positive moods encourage exploration, so they predicted that individuals reporting positive moods would prefer landscapes marked by Prospect (vast expanses and overviews). They hypothesized that negative moods encourage rest and recovery and therefore predicted that individuals reporting mood dysphoria would prefer landscapes rich in Refuge (enclosed, protected spaces). Although Mealey and Theis claim that their data support their predictions, a close examination of their results indicates only slight, tenuous support. Speculating that the weak support for their hypotheses might be due partially to the weak psychometric properties of their instruments, we repeated their study using both their measures and a number of sound, established measures of mood and personality. Our results indicate that reliably-measured preference for Prospect is associated slightly with high emotional arousal (independent of positive and negative valence) and strongly associated with the personality domain of Conscientiousness. Reliably-measured preference for Refuge is associated somewhat with low emotional arousal (independent of positive and negative valence) and also with the low end of the personality domain of Agreeableness.