Ethnic Susceptibility to Crowding

Abstract

Impressionistic evidence suggests that Asians, the British, and Southern Europeans differ in the way they view and adapt to the physical environment. This research examines differences in tolerance of population density across these ethnic categories. Using room density and design density as predictors, and psychological strain as an indicator or crowding, the data show that Asians are most tolerant of high density. Respondents of British origin seem least adaptable, and Southern Europeans are somewhere in between. The findings support the qualitative observations and hold when gender and socioeconomic status are included as controls. The data were drawn from a sample of adolescents in the Toronto Central Metropolitan Area.