Leaving on a Jet Plane

As we start to be inoculated, worldwide, it does start to seem likely that someday soon we may again find ourselves on airplanes, actually travelling, maybe even for fun.  Remember vacation?

Airplane Design from an Environmental Psychology Perspective.

Airplane design does just about everything wrong from an environmental psychology perspective. Some prisons may be better places to spend time than airplanes.

One of the most challenging part of being on an airplane is that we have so little control of our experiences while we’re there.  We start to loose opportunities to make our own decisions when we step into the terminal at the airport.  It is generally viewed as bad form to do anything except exactly what the security teams at the screening stations suggest.  Once we’re on the plane, we can’t exit early, no matter how annoying the person sitting next to us is and on many flights, we can’t even change seats.  Whatever our personality, the lack of control we feel on airplanes makes us very tense.

On airplanes, we often find ourselves closer to other people than we’d generally choose to be, although some airlines, at least at this stage in the COVID pandemic are placing passengers at greater distances than in the past—this is likely to change as time moves on.  Each culture has its own personal space zone rules, but having a stranger sitting in the next seat fall asleep against your shoulder is a violation no matter where you’re from.  Personal space invasions add to our stress levels, whether they are due to physical distance alone, or “shared” scents, sounds, etc.

There are many, many stressors on airplanes besides lack of control and personal space invasions.  Often aircraft interiors don’t smell very good and there are all sorts of odd sounds that start, and often, more terrifyingly, stop without any sort of warning or apparent plan.  Also, there’s no where to get a moment’s privacy, outside the view/hearing of others besides the rest room, and airplane bathrooms rarely get positive reviews.

Although this is now changing, many aircraft interiors are pressurized to correspond to altitudes above sea level at which research has shown our ability to problem solve and do other cognitive work is compromised, so just when it might be most important for us to reason to a better understanding of a noise, etc., we lack the capacity to do so.

On the positive side, at least on airplanes we’re all sitting facing the same direction, which minimizes the possibility of inadvertent eye contact that can amplify negative situations.  Also, the clouds we see outside the airplane window, if we can see out the window, are natural fractals, which are relaxing for us to view, as discussed in this article from The Space Doctors.

Next time you’re on a plane, try to be patient with those around you, they’re as stressed out by their travel experiences as you are, all of which can be further aggrevated by concerns such as the potential to miss connecting flights, alcohol consumption, etc.  Try to keep others’ stress levels in check by, for example, leaving the stinky cheese at home and bringing lots of quiet, calm things for the kiddos to do during the flight.