An experiment was conducted in which subjects were convinced that crowding was imminent. It was hypothesized that the arousal of expectations of crowding would cause subjects to behave in ways suggesting that they were preparing for the experience of crowding by taking steps to reduce the impact of crowding before its onset. Similarly, it was predicted that anticipation of crowding would influence subject perceptions of the experimental room, interpersonal affect, and general levels of discomfort. Data collected indicated that these predictions were accurate; subjects anticipating crowding chose more socially isolated seat positions, avoided contact with others, experienced crowding and discomfort, and rated others in the setting as well as the room in ways generally consistent with definitions of crowding.
Following Altman's model of crowding, we hypothesized that personal space intrusion by an interviewer, privacy reduction through social surveillance by unwanted strangers, and restriction of isolation-withdrawal behaviors via subjects' corner seating location would heighten perceptions of crowding and increase the frequency of overt coping behaviors in an attempt to ameliorate crowding stress. Male subjects were randomly assigned to a moderately personal interview in one of eight experimental conditions, arranged as a 2 (intrusion or no intrusion) X 2 (surveillance or no surveillance) X 2 (corner seat location or center seat location) factorial design. Results indicated the following: (a) Intrusion and surveillance independently produce significantly greater degrees of felt crowding stress than the no-intrusion and no-surveillance conditions, respectively, (b) These effects were also additive, with intrusion being the more potent determinant of felt crowding, (c) Subjects in both intrusion and surveillance conditions exhibited significantly more withdrawal behaviors than in the no-intrusion and no-surveillance conditions, respectively, (d) No major effects were found for the seat location conditions with respect to perception of crowding and withdrawal behaviors. These data are discussed in terms of extant equilibrium crowding models.Based on the overload hypothesis posited by Milgram (1970) and others (e.g., Desor, 1972;Valins & Baum, 1973), crowding has been viewed as an excess of social stimulation that instigates withdrawal coping responses. Observational studies indicate that children subjected to high-density environments interact with other children to a lesser extent than children in low-density environments (Hutt & Vaizey, 1966;Loo, 1972). Similarly, adults exposed to high density engage in less facial regard (e.g.,
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