Crowd Control

Ever since a psychologist in the 1960s packed a bunch of rats into a room and observed the gruesome results, the idea that overcrowding promotes increased aggression and even violence in humans has become widespread. In recent decades, however, scientists have revised their view. People, after all, somehow navigate peacefully through crowded situations every day, jamming themselves into trains and elevators without ordinarily resorting to ratlike savagery. Despite their irritation and stress, people adjust and stay calm.

But why? Is it human intelligence or culture that prompts people to behave in this civilized fashion? No, say de Waal, a psychologist who directs the Living Links Center at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta, and his co-authors. Remaining cool in overcrowded situations is part of humans’ evolutionary heritage.

#### To continue reading, please click Download PDF, above.