Journal of Personality and Social Psycholology, 2000 Aug;79(2):204-10

Cross-cultural differences in tolerance for crowding: fact or fiction?

Evans GW, Lepore SJ, Allen KM
Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
14853-4401, USA. gwel@cornell.edu

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. …
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* Reproduced with permission of the APA - Jounal of Personality and Social Psychology