Our personalities shape our homes, but it's not one-way traffic: they exert a powerful psychological effect on us too. Take the way it smells. "If there are clean smells in the house, you are more likely to keep it clean," says Paul Dolan, a psychologist at the London School of Economics.
In one study carried out in 2005, Dutch psychologists found that the aroma from a hidden bucket of citrus-smelling cleaner was enough to make volunteers do a much better job of cleaning up biscuit crumbs – even though they weren't aware of the scent. Although the research was carried out in a lab, Dolan suspects that we are likely to behave in a similar way at home.
Architect Chris Travis takes this even further. He believes that the most powerful influences our homes have on us ...
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