Why Do We Enjoy ‘Nice Views’?
A view from a vantage point, high up or with a sweeping outlook over a grand city or unaltered nature will always be described as aesthetically pleasing by onlookers. Why? Why do we get a sense of righteousness, awe and cheek-stretching cherish from a ‘nice view’?
Instagram is filled with them, jobs are taken off the back of ‘the view’ from your desk, poetry is written, songs are sung and sweat is expunged for the sake of a view.
Michael Forster from the University of Vienna says:
Humans have been curious about the environment because exploring our surroundings in evolution helped us detect threats to our life and helped us to find food. These are two of the most important factors for our survival. If we can do this surveying from a high or sweeping vantage, we can both sway a large area of the food and at the same time, spot threats from a far distance.
For city-scapes on the other hand … the enjoyment most probably comes from mix of social engagement, pride or awe that we as humans are able to create such enormous structures or again, interest in complexity.
I am inclined to agree. I think there’s a functional, evolutionary foundation to this human obsession. A sense of safety combined with an almost overwhelming tide of vastness and majesty inevitably floods our mind with wonder and worldliness. Perhaps we find comfort in the reminder that we are part of a much bigger picture outside the nitty-gritty of our day-to-day dealings, and the horizon is symbolic of hope.
It’s something I try not to buy into however, when thinking about a potential job opportunity. Not that I go for interviews anymore but when I did, I would shun the emotional factor of the niceness of the building or the beauty of the view from some of the pen’s windows. I felt it was important to keep the decision about the job purely commercial, hard-nosed and of a progressive nature. Perhaps, if I had allowed some of my heart strings to be pulled during this process I would have found more longevity in my places of employment and things could have spun out differently if I had allowed myself to become inspired by intangible things external to the core job role and purpose. But then again, I may not be where I am today — loving working for myself as a writer, bereft of compromise and full of confidence in the view from my bedroom office.
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