Urban Scaling, Urban Regulatory Focus and Their Interrelations

In this chapter we further elaborate on the central claim of urban allometry that city size correlates positively with the pace of life in cities. Our starting point is Ross and Portugali’s notion of urban regulatory focus which is an extension of Higgins’ regulatory focus theory to the urban context. Ross and Portugali demonstrated empirically that a city pace of life affects its citizens’ motivational tendencies. In this chapter we show how this finding further affects the dynamics of cities. Based on the theoretical foundations of our Synergetic Cities, we show how the dynamic of cities of different paces of life (sizes) is affected by, and is affecting, their inhabitants’ and users’ motivational tendencies and thus their behavior in the city.