What is the depth and significance of squares in shaping an individual's thought and behavior or society's psychology? If Any?

What's square psychology? If any?

 That’s a profound question and can encourage humans to be cautious about having many squares around, and indeed—squares, as a geometric form, play a deep and significant role in how we think, behave, and act collectively as a society. Geometry is never just neutral; shapes are visual archetypes that influence perception and cognition.

Squares and cubes

Psychological Impact on the Individual

Stability & Security: Squares suggest precision, equality, order, and rational planning. Each side is the same length, and each angle is equal. This symmetry makes the square feel “safe,” predictable, and trustworthy. People exposed to squares often experience a subconscious association with structure and groundedness.

Confinement & Rigidity: Simultaneously, the square can feel restrictive, resembling a box or a cage, as illustrated by metaphors like "think out of the box," which originate from this concept. Squares (cubicles, tiled floors, blocky buildings) can dominate an individual's environment, reinforcing conformist behavior and suppressing fluid, creative thought.

Societal & Cultural Significance

Order & Civilization: From city planning in Mesopotamia to modern urban grids, squares reflect how societies impose order over chaos. A square city grid organizes movement, ownership, and hierarchy.

 

Equality & Democracy: In a square, all sides and corners are equal. This visual archetype resonates with ideas of fairness, equal participation, and shared space—hence the popularity of squares and rectangles in public buildings, courtyards, and democratic forums.

Surveillance & Discipline: Michel Foucault described how spatial design (e.g., prisons shaped with square cells) becomes a tool of control over behavior. The square’s clarity and visibility reinforce regulation and discipline. Shop men's fashion clothing. Go here

History of the square and its origins

Prehistoric Geometry: The idea of a square emerged as As soon as humans could measure equal sides and right angles, early evidence of square layouts could be traced to Neolithic settlements, such as Çatalhöyük from 7000 BCE, in present-day Turkey. In present-day Turkey, mudbrick houses are arranged in almost perfect rectangular or square units. In Mesopotamia (Sumer, around 4000 BCE), squares were used in city planning. Grids, temples, and early surveying are examples of this.

Mesopotamia's use of the square

Egypt (~2700 BCE): pyramids are rooted in square bases. This configuration reflects earthly stability and divine order, as demonstrated by the Babylonians' mathematical formalization. They calculated the areas of squares and used these measurements for land division around 1800 BCE.

Euclid (300 BCE, Greece) gave formal definitions in Elements—a square became a rational unit of geometry.

Civilizations That Used Squares Most Visually

Ancient Mesopotamia: Cities like Babylon and Ur had grid-like square layouts, symbolizing order and control and power structures.

Greek & Roman Worlds:

Greek agora and Roman castrum (military camps) were laid out in squares and rectangles.

This discussion includes the Roman towns that spread the square street grid across Europe and North Africa.

 Nested squares structure the Forbidden City.

Chinese cosmology used the square to represent Earth (circle = Heaven). Even traditional coins had square holes, which symbolized a balance between cosmic order and earthly matter. 

Renaissance Europe: Squares became symbolic of rational humanism. City planning (e.g., Florence, Paris) emphasized geometric grids and piazzas.

High-square nations:

The United States makes extensive use of rectangular city grids, cubicle workspaces, and boxy suburban houses. The Land Ordinance of 1785 divided U.S. territory into a massive square-mile grid—one of the largest square projects in history. Most American cities (e.g., New York, Chicago, and Phoenix) follow grids of rectangles and squares.

China retains square symbolism in city planning, architecture, and design. →

The Middle East, particularly in traditional Islamic cities like Fez and Cairo, is known for its use of squares in urban design. Middle Easterners are perhaps the inventors of squares, which they have used in their monuments and places. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians decorated their city walls with stairs-looking squares and rectangles. Muslims worship a black stone called Kaba in God's house before Islam started.

Japan, 

Janan is a place where squares and rectangles are used everywhere in daily life. If we want to see how squares affect our behavior, we must look to Japan.

Tatami mats: The foundation of Japanese interior design. Rooms are literally measured in “tatami” units (rectangular/square). This technique creates modular, grid-like houses.

Tatami mats

Shoji screens: Paper sliding doors framed in perfect square/rectangular grids.

Fusuma walls: Also framed in squares, making the home a living box system where walls move like Lego blocks.

The room features Japanese fusuma walls and a tatami floor covering.

Zen temples & gardens: Stone gardens and pathways are often built on grids and rectangular layouts.

This means that the Japanese think, move, and live in squares every single day.

Material Culture & Everyday Objects

Tableware: Square and rectangular dishes are very common (rare in Western dining traditions).

Footwear: Traditional geta sandals are flat rectangles, unlike curved shoes elsewhere.

Japanese rectangle sandals

Kimono design: Made from straight, rectangular fabric strips sewn together geometrically, it is one of the “squarest” garments.

Bento boxes: Compartmentalized in neat little squares/rectangles—visual order applied to food.

The philosophy and aesthetics of the square in Japan

Ma (間): The Japanese concept of structured space—emphasizing intervals, boundaries, and balance—often expressed through rectilinear divisions.

Wabi-sabi: While celebrating imperfection, it often manifests within strict geometric frames (e.g., cracked glaze on a square teacup).

Some Japanese characteristics compare to more organic cultures

1-Japan develops micro-precision thinking, while organic cultures develop adaptive fluid thinking.

2-Japan cultivates discipline and collective conformity, while organic cultures encourage spontaneity and individual improvisation.

3-Japan emphasizes clarity and refinement, while other cultures emphasize ornament and complexity.

4-Japan leans toward order, collective conformity, and minimalism, while other cultures lean toward hiddenness, ambiguity, and individual variance.

Japan: Square-based culture leads to incremental, modular innovation. The focus is on small refinements, high-quality perfection, and detail obsession.

Example: Japanese electronics, packaging, and cuisine presentation.

Precision Thinking: The square influence shows up in Japanese obsession with precision, order, minimalism, and standardized craft traditions.

Japan: Uses the square in the intimate, human-scale sphere—clothing, food, architecture, and ritual. Squares are not just external order but are woven into daily life and aesthetic consciousness.

Behavioral Implications

Japanese society places a high value on precision, compartmentalization, and modularity.

Individuals learn to “fit” into boxes—social roles, rituals, and even seating arrangements.

Harmony comes from respecting boundaries, much like tatami room layouts. Square layouts symbolize intimacy, aeAesthetics, discipline, and ritualized living are interconnected concepts that can be analyzed through behavioral and cognitive comparisons.

Behavior: Strong emphasis on order, rules, repetition, and productivity.

Social Psychology: Collective conformity; society values predictability and visibility.

Urban Feeling: Grid cities are simple to navigate but can feel monotonous or oppressive. 

 Thought Process: It is intuitive, adaptive, and flowing rather than rigid or structured. rigid.

Behavior: It values spontaneity, adherence to rules, and improvisation. strong morality.

Social Psychology: More acceptance of ambiguity, complexity, and hiddenness. 

Contrast With Other Square Cultures

China: Uses the square cosmologically and politically (Heaven = circle, Earth = square). China utilizes large, symbolic squares such as Tiananmen.

United States: Uses the square for efficiency and expansion (city grids, land plots, office cubicles).

Conclusion

Square psychology is a profound question that can encourage humans to think about having many squares around. Squares, as a geometric shape, play a deep and significant role in how we think, behave, and act both individually and collectively as a society. They suggest stability, security, and order, making the square feel "safe," predictable, and trustworthy. However, these metaphors can also evoke a sense of restriction, similar to being trapped in a box or a cage, as illustrated by the phrase "think out of the box," which originates from this concept.

Squares have historical origins in various civilizations, including ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, the Roman world, and Renaissance Europe. Squares and rectangles are ubiquitous in daily life in Japan, with tatami mats serving as the foundation for Japanese interior design. Other square cultures include China and the United States, which use squares for efficiency and expansion in city planning, land plots, and office cubicles.

Japanese society places a high value on precision, compartmentalization, and modularity, and individuals learn to "fit" into boxes, social roles, rituals, and seating arrangements. Harmony comes from respecting boundaries, much like tatami room layouts. Square layouts symbolize intimacy, aesthetics, discipline, precision, and ritualized living.

Behavioral and cognitive comparisons between Japanese and other square cultures include a strong emphasis on order, rules, repetition, and productivity; collective conformity; urban feeling; intuitive, adaptive thought processes; and more acceptance of ambiguity, complexity, and hiddenness.

Alex Angelino

Fashion District, Los Angeles