Money in your palm: Sharp shaped vegetation in the surroundings increase the subjective value of houses Shlomo Hareli a, * , Shlomo David a , Simcha Lev-Yadun b , Gadi Katzir c, ** a Department of Business Administration, University of Haifa, Israel b Department of Biology & Environment, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa-Oranim, Israel c Department of Evolutionary & Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Israel article info Article history: Received 11 February 2015 Received in revised form 20 April 2016 Accepted 25 April 2016 Available online 26 April 2016 Keywords: Surrounding vegetation Leaf shape Subjective value of houses Indicators of suitable habitats Palms Perceived safety abstract Preference for round over sharp shaped objects, is attributed to the potential damage of sharpness. We tested if leaf sharpness of vegetation surrounding a house, affects the evaluation of the house and its owner. We demonstrated that houses surrounded by sharp leaf vegetation (SLV) were evaluated as more expensive than houses surrounded by round leaf vegetation (RLV). Among the SLV surrounded houses, those surrounded only by palms were rated highest while SLV houses were evaluated as safer. In a final experiment, the perceptions of individual leaves differing in shape, were consistent with the protective function of sharp leaves. Our findings are explained by theorizing that SLV confer protective value on neighboring houses. The perceived higher values and safety of houses surrounded by palms is attributed to the association of palms with suitable and stable living environments. Furthermore, preference for palm habitats may have deep roots of human evolution in African savannas. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Imagine traveling along a street, watching the houses and their surrounding vegetation. Would the characteristics of this vegeta- tion affect your estimate of the price of the houses? For example, would vegetation with spiny leaves affect your estimate differently than vegetation with round leaves? Strange as it may seem, this question stems from the richly documented phenomena and derived theories of the effects of shapes of objects on how they are perceived by humans, how are they reacted to and what is known about the link between vegetation and humans' habitat preferences. One significant factor that has been found to affect people's preferences for living environments is the vegetation in that envi- ronment (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1982). Related theories suggest that habitat preferences coevolved with intrinsic qualities of habitats that, in turn, are reflected in the vegetation typical of these habitats (Orians & Heerwagen, 1992). Consequently, it has been suggested that people prefer vegetation that provides functional advantages, such as safety or crucial resources and vegetation that signals other adaptive advantages of the environment. These preferences may function to lead individuals away from inappropriate environments and towards more suitable ones (Kaplan, 1992). Derived from this general theory is the African savanna hypothesis, suggesting that because of the critical role that the savanna had on the evolution of modern humans, savanna-type environments should be preferred over other biomes (Orians, 1986). Indeed, there is evidence that people prefer savanna type vegetation over rain forests, or typical temperate region deciduous and coniferous forests. Much of these preferences are based on the form of the vegetation, that is, figural characteristics of vegetation typical of the preferred biome (Falk & Balling, 2009). Characteristics such as overall size, canopy size and trunk height were shown to affect these preferences (Summit & Sommer, 1999). Even though people prefer savanna-type vegeta- tion within the boundaries of this preference, there is an even higher preference for high quality over low quality savanna habi- tats. In this case, too, an important factor distinguishing between the two is the figural properties of the vegetation. Specifically, participants from three countries (the USA, Argentina and * Corresponding author. Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management, University of Haifa, Haifa, 31905, Israel. ** Corresponding author. Department of Biology and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa at Oranim, Tivon 36006, Israel. E-mail addresses: shareli@gsb.haifa.ac.il (S. Hareli), katgad@gmail.com (G. Katzir). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jep http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2016.04.014 0272-4944/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Environmental Psychology 46 (2016) 176e187