Perception of Density

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Abstract
Research on human density has indicated that how people perceive a high-density situation strongly influences their behavior, and that density itself rarely has a direct unmediated effect on human behavior. The purposes of the present study were to (1) determine if there are individual differences in the perception of density, (2) clarify the nature of these individual differences if they exist, and (3) assess the dimensions underlying people's perceptions of situations of varying density. Subjects (n = 30) made pairwise similarity judgments of 12 neutral-secondary situations (Stokols, 1976) which varied on type of activity, group size, and spatial density. A Tucker and Messick (1963) approach to multidimensional scaling revealed sizable individual differences in perception of the situations. Three groupings of subjects were identified. Each grouping was similar in that the two major dimensions underlying perceptions were Spatial Constraint and Social Constraint. The major difference between groups of subjects was the relative emphasis assigned to the two dimensions. Results were discussed in the context of an interactionist perspective on density research, and the practical importance of the findings was considered.

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