People judge therapists by their offices

I wish I could see the photos they used so I could get some decorating ideas! :)


Ohio State University issued the following news release:

People judge therapists by their offices, study shows

People may judge the quality and qualifications of psychotherapists
simply by what their offices look like, a new study suggests.

After only viewing photos of offices, study participants gave higher
marks to psychotherapists whose offices were neat and orderly, decorated
with soft touches like pillows and throw rugs, and which featured
personal touches like diplomas and framed photos.

"People seem to agree on what the office of a good therapist would look
like and, especially, what it wouldn't look like," said Jack Nasar, co-
author of the study and professor of city and regional planning at Ohio
State University.

"Whether it is through cultural learning or something else, people think
they can judge therapists just based on their office environment."

Nasar conducted the study with Ann Sloan Devlin, professor of psychology
at Connecticut College.

Their study appears online in the Journal of Counseling Psychology and
will appear in a future print edition.

The research involved several experiments in which people viewed 30
digital color photographs of actual psychotherapist offices in Manhattan.

All were taken by photographer Saul Robbins as part of an artistic
project, and he gave permission to the researchers to use the
photographs in the study.

The photos showed a view of the therapist's chair and surrounding office
from the perspective of where the client would sit.

Altogether, 242 college students participated in the studies - about 60
percent of whom had seen a therapist themselves.

The researchers found no difference in results between those who had
seen a therapist and those who hadn't, men and women, people of
different ages, or residents of a small Northeastern town and residents
of a large Midwestern city, suggesting the results are generalizable,
Nasar said.

Before the study began, 12 graduate students rated each of the 30
offices on a wide range of characteristics, such as neatness,
spaciousness and amount of personalization.

In the first study, students were asked to imagine visiting a therapist
for an emotional problem.

As they looked at each photo, they were asked to rate each office for
the quality of care expected and how comfortable they would feel in it.

They rated these qualities on a seven point scale from very poor to very good.

Participants said they would be more comfortable and expect better care
in offices that had been rated as more orderly and that had more
personal touches, such as a pillow, diplomas hanging on the wall or photos.

They also thought more highly of therapists whose offices had a "softer"
feel - those that had cushioned chairs, carpeting, table lamps, plants
and throw rugs.

In a second study, participants thought orderly, personalized and softer
offices had therapists who were bolder and more qualified.

Offices rated as softer were viewed as having friendlier therapists.

A third study asked participants to view the photos and simply write the
first thought or feeling that came to mind regarding a patient's likely
experience in the office, the therapist who occupied the office, and the
office itself.

And in a final study, the researchers asked the participants to choose
which offices they would want to go to if they had to see a therapist,
and which ones they would most want to avoid.

"The top-rated offices also pointed to the importance of softness and
order," Nasar said.

"For the top five offices, participants most frequently described the
office as comfortable, nice, clean, warm and inviting."

In contrast, the bottom five offices were described as cluttered,
cramped, messy, uncomfortable and unprofessional.

Nasar said there was more agreement about which offices were the worst
than about which were the best.

"People have less agreement about what makes an office good, but the
negative aspects really stood out to them in a consistent way," he said.

Therapists who worked in the top five rated offices were also seen more
favorably - more organized, professional, friendly, experienced -- than
those in the bottom five offices.

However, there was also gender stereotypes associated with the offices,
Nasar said.

The therapists in the top-rated offices were more likely to be seen as
men, whereas those in the bottom-rated offices were more often
identified as women in the open-ended comments.

Participants in this study thought they would get better therapists in
some offices, and that might be true, Nasar said.

Research shows that judgments about people from the places they occupy
are often accurate.

Even if the judgments are not accurate, therapists should take the look
of their offices seriously.

"These results suggest that someone visiting a therapist in a low-rated
office for the first time may not want to come back.

"It may seem obvious that people will judge someone by the office they
keep, but we found that these offices vary a great deal.

There are therapists out there who don't know or who don't care that
they are sending out bad signals to their clients."

Nasar said therapists should take these findings to heart.

"I would tell therapists to keep their offices soft and friendly
looking. Put up your diplomas and personalize the office.

Arrange everything in a neat and orderly way and keep it that way."