Cross-Cultural Differences in Tolerance for Crowding: Fact or Fiction?

It is widely believed that cultures vary in their tolerance for crowding. There is, however, little evidence to substantiate this belief, coupled with serious shortcomings in the extant literature. Tolerance for crowding has been confused with cultural differences in personal space preferences along...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 2000-08, Vol.79 (2), p.204-210
Main Authors: Evans, Gary W, Lepore, Stephen J, Allen, Karen Mata
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
African Americans - psychology
Analysis
Asian Americans - psychology
Asians
Behavior. Attitude
Biological and medical sciences
Black People
California
Cross Cultural Differences
Cross cultural studies
Cross-cultural analysis
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Crosscultural Differences
Crowding
Crowding - psychology
Crowds
Cultural Characteristics
Cultural differences
Ethnic groups
European Continental Ancestry Group - psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hispanic Americans - psychology
Human
Humans
Latinos/Latinas
Los Angeles, California
Male
New York
Personal Space
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Psychological Distress
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Racial and Ethnic Differences
Sampling Studies
Social Perception
Social psychology
Tolerance
United States
Urban Population
White People
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Summary:It is widely believed that cultures vary in their tolerance for crowding. There is, however, little evidence to substantiate this belief, coupled with serious shortcomings in the extant literature. Tolerance for crowding has been confused with cultural differences in personal space preferences along with perceived crowding. Furthermore, the few studies that have examined cultural variability in reactions to crowding have compared subgroup correlations, which is not equivalent to a statistical interaction. Although the authors found a statistical interaction indicating that Asian Americans and Latin Americans differ in the way they perceive crowding in comparison to their fellow Anglo-American and African American citizens, all four ethnic groups suffer similar, negative psychological distress sequelae of high-density housing. These results hold independently of household income.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.79.2.204