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Human Behavior: Negative and Positive Effects on the Environment

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The environments we live in are always in a state of continuous change in a range from the microscopic level to full on changes to the land or atmosphere. Although some of this can be attributed to an environment's natural ability to change, humanity and its behaviors are believed to speed up or change the evolution and transformation of the earths natural states (Steg, 2013). The changes, both natural and man made, have more influence on us than we know. The environments we live play as much of a role shaping us as we do them and can affect many aspects in our lives. Our environments can play a role in various states of being whether it has to do with our emotions, health, and even our attitudes and behaviors can be shaped based off the enviroment we are in (Steg, 2013).
Environmental cues are everything in an environment that we respond to in some way. Whether it is the sun, a tree, a building, noise, weather, each of the factors can play a role in influencing our behaviors in some way (Anderson, 2001). If the weather is too hot or too cold it can affect the way we dress, our mood, and our behaviors. One specific example is the strong correlation between heat and aggression. It is theorized that hotter weather plays a role in elevated aggressive behaviors. Although in modern times it has become a more studied theory, but the idea of heat causing more aggression has been spoken on since the 1700’s with explorers and others noting the differences in behaviors when they find themselves in areas that are higher in temperature (Anderson, 2001). More recently research has been done using violent crime statistics in the U.S. to observe trends. One thing noted that in hotter parts of the year violent crime statistics were significantly higher as well as parts of the U.S. that are normally hotter had higher violent crimes rates than more mild and colder parts of the

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