Behavioral and Physiological Consequences of Crowding in Humans¹

Abstract

Tables Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 Table 13 Table 14 Table 15 Table 16 Table 17 Table 18 Table 19 Table 20 Table 21 Table 22 General Experimental Outline hypothesis that crowding acts as a stressor mediated by high arousal.Significant increases in blood pressure and heart rate were found for subjects in crowded conditions compared to different subjects in uncrowded conditions. Decrements in complex task performance were also found.These included more errors in a high signal rate task and greater errors in a secondary task during a dual task situation. Less tolerance for frustration as an aftereffect of the crowded experience was also reported. Poorer performance on a group cooperation task was also found for the crowded groups. The main effect of sex was nonsignificant as was the sex by crowding interaction term. Some self -report and observational data were also consistent with the stress h3rpothesis.The second major hypothesis of the study was that individual differences in responses to crowding could be explained by a constellation of personality and background variables. This hypothesis was not supported.Analysis revealed that the set of multiple regression equations for the crowded conditions were not unique to that condition, i.e., the regression functions for both major conditions, crowded and uncrowded, were parallel.liehavioral and physiological consequences of crowding in humansThe human experience of crowding is an extremely complex and important phenomenon. This research project has four basic objectives:1.To examine the behavioral and physiological consequences of crowding;2.To explore further the distinction between high density and crowding;3.To monitor the adaptive/coping responses of individuals under crowding conditions and; 4.To investigate what contribution various personological and sociological variables make to an individual's responses to crowding.To meet this broad agenda, subjects were placed in either a high density condition or a low density condition. The maternal behavior and care of the young were also greately affected by increased crowding. Litters were often abandoned and eventually nest building ceased entirely.In more recent work, Calhoun (1971) has completed some longitudinal studies of overpopulated rat colonies. In general, he has found that these animals pass through four stages: i) an establishment phase which extends to time of birth to the first successful litter, ii) a period of rapid population growth, iii) a reduction in population growth, iv) stability or slight decline in population numbers.Near the end of phase iii) aberrant social behaviors sharply increased and by the onset of iv) successful rearing of young was nearly absent.In addition, consistent with previous data reported above, conception dropped off significantly in these latter stages. Consistent with Chitty's (1955) hypothesis that high population density conditions may adversely affect the v...

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