Commuters' eye contact with strangers in city and suburban train stations: Evidence of short-term adaptation to interpersonal overload in the city

In the present study experimenters attempted to make eye contact with commuters as they approached an express train linking city and suburb and, 20 minutes later, as commuters left the same train. During both the morning rush from suburb to city and the evening rush from city to suburb, commuters were less willing to meet an experimenter's eye at the city train station than at the suburban station. These results support the hypothesis that reduced eye contact with strangers in the city is a short-term adaptation to interpersonal overload in the city. Most generally the results indicate a convergence of laboratory and field data toward the conclusion that crowding effects on behavior are best understood as adaptation to interpersonal overload.