Perceptions of Crowding

Abstract

Interest in crowding has generated a large number of animal and correlational studies. Yet, this research has not addressed itself to the questions of broader importance, namely, what are the effects of dense environments on human behavior, perception, and general well being. The laboratory and field research on human crowding has been used to develop two primary explanations. Crowding has been described as a negative affective reaction to social or behavioral interference from others in a setting and has also been defined as overstimulation emanating from social sources. The present paper details the results of a large-scale field study that was conducted in the cities of River-side and San Bernardino, California, aimed at testing these two theoretical approaches in a field setting. Multiple regression analysis was used to predict the perception of crowding at the residence, neighborhood, and city levels by phsychological and physical variables. We found that the behavioral or social interference approach was the best general explanation for the perception of crowding at all three levels of analysis. Psychological factors became increasingly important for the prediction of crowding as one moved from the immediate residence to the less immediate city level. Conversely, physical measures were important at the residential level, but progressively less important in the neighborhood and city. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.