ITHACA, N.Y. -- Dispelling widely held myths about various ethnic groups' tolerance of crowding, a new Cornell University study finds that Asian Americans and Latin Americans are just as uncomfortable in crowded homes as are Anglo Americans (Americans of European descent) and African Americans.
"Contrary to popular beliefs and many scientists' views, we find no evidence that Asian and Latin Americans can better withstand or tolerate the adverse psychological consequences of living in crowded homes," says Gary Evans, a professor of design and environmental analysis in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. Evans is an environmental psychologist interested in how the physical environment can affect human health and well-being. He is an international expert on environmental stress, resulting from noise, crowding, inadequate housing and air pollution.
The study appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 79, 2000). Besides Evans, the authors are Steve Lepore, an associate professor at Brooklyn College, and Karen Allen, a research associate at the School of Medicine, University of California -- Irvine.
The study concludes that residential crowding is harmful to people regardless of their culture. Furthermore, this finding occurs independently of household income levels. Mexican Americans and Vietnamese Americans, however, the study says, tend to perceive their homes as less crowded (based on a given number of people per room) relative to African Americans or Anglo American individuals. But, the study cautions, crowding perceptions do not translate into greater resilience to psychological distress in response to high residential density.
"It's widely believed that cultures vary in their tolerance to crowding," Evans and his colleagues write in the article. "However, people in some cultures do seem to have smaller personal space zones, that is, the interpersonal distance that people choose when they talk to each other. They also may perceive crowding situations differently. That is, they may judge a level of density as less crowded relative to Anglo individuals. However, this is not the same as crowding tolerance." The researchers set out to test a widely held belief that there are cross-cultural differences in tolerance of crowding. They conducted in-depth interviews with 464 U.S. residents of Anglo, African, Vietnamese and Mexican ethnic backgrounds. They measured the individuals' perceptions of crowding and their degree of acculturation into U.S. society.
The findings not only debunk myths and assumptions regarding tolerance of crowding among ethnic groups but also have implications for urban planning. Notes Evans, "Some planners claim that we should not impose mainstream, meaning Anglo, values on immigrant groups regarding housing standards for density. This work clearly distinguishes the differences between tolerance for crowding and perceptions of crowding, which I think many people, scholars and the public alike, have tended to confuse."
The research was funded, in part, by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of General Medical Science.
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For information about Gary Evans, http://www.human.cornell.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?netid=gwe1&facs=1
Journal
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology