Eye Contact with Strangers in City, Suburb, and Small Town

Abstract
Eye contact with a stranger was relatively rare in center-city Philadelphia, more common in a Philadelphia suburb, and very common in a small rural Pennsylvania town. Speaking to a stranger occurred only if eye contact occurred and was rare in city and suburb but more common in the small town. These results suggest that social interaction in the city is an adaptation to overload of interpersonal contacts, rather than an expression of social pathology.