A Cultural Comparison of Perceived Crowding and Discomfort: The United States and West Germany

1 May 1983

journal article
research article
Published by Taylor & Francis in The Journal of Psychology

Vol. 114 (1) , 63-67
https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1983.9915397

Abstract

In an attempt to compare the effects of interpersonal distance, number of people, acquaintance level, and sex on perceived crowding and discomfort between two cultures, those of the United States and West Germany, 90 eighth and ninth graders were shown diagrams of simulated crowding situations. Results indicated that the distance to other people is of more importance than the number of people, acquaintance level is of more importance in the German culture than in the American, and that at large distances Germans tend to feel more comfortable than Americans when they have more people around them.

Keywords

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:

Perceptions of Crowding and Pleasantness in Public Settings
Environment and Behavior, 1978
Environmental Psychology
Annual Review of Psychology, 1978
On the distinction between density and crowding: Some implications for future research.
Psychological Review, 1972