Development of a psychological pathway model linking lighting quality to well-being in indoor café environments

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate whether indoor lighting quality would have any systematic impact on psychological well-being of people working in café environments. Earlier studies have mostly focused on the impact of lighting in typical workspace environments through laboratory settings. The present study was conducted under two different real café environments; one with daylight, another without daylight, with a total of 66 customers’ participation. Two psychological pathway models that linked customers’ self-reported lighting quality, pleasantness, aesthetic judgement of space appearance, environmental satisfaction and feelings of eye discomfort were developed. Application of structural equation modelling produced strong fits to these two models, one with daylight, another without daylight, in which quality of lighting was linked with environmental satisfaction and feelings of eye discomfort in both cafés. The results suggest that under a non-daylit café environment, providing good quality lighting can both directly and indirectly promote environmental satisfaction and decrease negative feelings of eye discomfort, while under a daylit café environment, perceived lighting quality was only indirectly linked.