Abstract
People generally are not comfortable in large crowds where they have little space to move. This feeling of crowding might result in more negative attitudes for people. Past research has shown that there is a negative correlation between the size of a city or town and the amount of interaction between strangers. It was found that the smaller the population of a town, the more friendly people appeared. This study examined the relationship between the same environment (a subway car), and the amount of people in the car during different points of the day. Forty participants were utilized to look at the relationship between the amount of people who were in the subway car and the level of interaction between the researcher and a participant. The results showed that the less people who were surrounding a participant, the more likely they were to smile back or remain neutral when a researcher smiled at them, whereas the more full the subway car, the less smiles the researchers received back.
In an effort to study the effect of crowd size on friendliness, there have been a few studies that compared city size to how likely someone was to return a researcher’s smile, head nod, or greeting. Newman and McCauley (1977, as cited in Amato, 1980) found that the when comparing a small town, suburb, and large city, the likelihood of a passer by reciprocating an interaction with a researcher on a sidewalk increased as the population size decreased. They concluded that the more urban the environment, the less likely people were to interact with each other. Amato (1980) expanded upon this idea, but the density of the sidewalk was taken into account this time. The results of his study showed similar results: the larger the population, the less likely the participant was to engage with the researcher.
The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between how crowded a subway car was and the rating of the resulting emotion shown by the participant after the researcher smiled at them. The research hypothesis was that if the researcher smiled at a participant in a less crowded subway car, the participant would smile back. The null hypothesis would be that the participant would smile back regardless if the subway cars were full or empty. The idea behind this is that the more empty the subway care and the more space a person has, the more relaxed they are, thus being more willing to interact with others. The study was held on the 7 train in New York City, going between Queens and Manhattan. The levels of facial expressions that the participants had after the researcher smiled at them were operationalized on a scale from 5 (a smile back) to 1 (appearing angry).
METHOD
This study was a quasi-experimental design. It was concealed and it focused on naturalistic observations of riders on the New York City subways. While riding the 7 train during peak morning hours, an off peak time in the afternoon, peak evening rush hour, and again at an off peak time late at night, the researcher was able to gather data that was genuine as opposed to contrived. The study was conducted on a Wednesday to ensure that there would be many people traveling on the subway to get to and from work. This day was also because there would likely not be as many people riding the subway late at night on a Wednesday as opposed to a Friday. The researcher adapted the Observed Emotion Rating scale (Lawston, Haitsma, and Klapper, 1999) to have a scale to use to rate the resulting facial expressions of commuters after being smiled at by the researcher. This is shown in figure 1.1.
Participants
Participants in this study were 40 adults riding on the New York City subway, specifically the 7 train. They were chosen out of convenience, the researcher was in close proximity to the 7 train and had already planned to travel into Manhattan that day. There were 20 males and 20 females who were observed naturally while the researcher also rode the subway with them. All participants chosen appeared to be over 18 years of age, most appeared to be between the ages of 30 and 55. Eleven of the participants were Black, fourteen of the participants were White, twelve of the participants were Asian (there is a large Chinese population in Flushing, Queens, but since the participants weren’t surveyed, it is unknown if they were all Chinese or not), and three of the participants appeared Middle Eastern.
Measures
Since this was an observational study, the researcher took into account the gender of the rider on the train and what time the train left the original station. The participants were divided into four groups, based on what time the train had originally departed the station (either in Queens or Manhattan). The total journey of the train was either four minutes or eight minutes, depending on if the train was an express train or a local train. These differences were not taken into account for the study.
The researcher also used an Emotion Rating Scale, which was adapted from the Lawston, et al. (1999) scale to measure and rate the reaction of the rider to being smiled at. The mean for each group (based on train time) was then found and they were compared. This data is shown in figure 1.2
The car of the train was determined to be ‘full’, ‘less full’, or ‘empty’ based on how easy it was for riders to move around, if there were seats available, and if there was room for more riders to enter the train at different stops. The 6:21 am train was deemed ‘full’ as there was not even enough room for more riders to enter the train at a few stops. The 2:46 pm train was considered ‘less full’ because there were, at times, seats available, but there were still many people on the train. The 4:45 pm train was also labeled as ‘full’ as the conditions of this train were comparable to the ones of the 6:21 am train. The 1:20 am train was viewed as ‘empty’ as there was never a shortage of seats and moving about the car was easy.
Procedures
The researcher made eye contact with a rider on a train and proceeded to smile at them. The participant’s subsequent reaction to this interaction was then interpreted and measured using the Emotion Rating Scale. The gender of the participant was also noted.
The first phase of the study was conducted on the 7 train from Queens to Manhattan. The researcher stood in a car on the 6:21am train and attempted to make eye contact with other commuters on the train. The train was very full with people unable to find seats and at times, there wasn’t room enough for more commuters to enter the car. The sample population from this first phase included 10 commuters who appeared to be over 18 years of age. There were 5 males and 5 females included.
The second phase was conducted on the 7 train going from Manhattan back to Queens. The researcher again stood in a car on the 2:46 pm train. This time was chosen to avoid any potential lunch rush in order to hopefully find a train that was less full. While it wasn’t anywhere near empty, the amount of riders had decreased significantly from the morning. There were 10 participants that were observed, again 5 of them being male and 5 of them female.
The third phase took place again during rush hour, but this time evening rush hour. The researcher again took the 7 train and boarded at 4:45 pm. This time, the journey started in Manhattan and went back to Queens to ensure that there would again be a large amount of commuters. During this trip, the riding conditions were similar to the ones reported for phase one. There were again 10 participants, 5 male, and 5 female.
During the fourth and final phase, the researcher took the 1:20 am 7 train from Queens to Manhattan. There were not many riders during this trip and the researcher had to walk to a few cars to find 10 participants.
RESULTS
As predicted, the data that was collected supports the idea that when a subway car is less crowded, people are more likely to return a smile. In both instances, the less full cars of the subway had higher mean emotional rating scores, meaning they were more likely to return a happy or neutral expression after a researcher smiled at them. There wasn’t a large difference between the ‘less full’ and ‘empty’ cars, but when comparing those two to the two ‘full’ cars, there is a difference that is shown. The more full the train car was, the more negative reactions the researcher observed.
DISCUSSION
Based on this data, it can be assumed that people are generally more comfortable and relaxed when they aren’t in large crowds. The results of the study are similar to the results found in the Amato (1980) study. Amato (1980) found that the bigger the city size, the less likely the participant was to engage with the researcher. This is comparable to the current study, as the bigger the city size, the more crowded to the sidewalks tend to be, or in this case, the subway cars.
This study could be further improved by controlling for time of day. Perhaps people are in worse moods in the morning compared to at night and this accounted for the differences in reaction for the participants. To make sure of this, future researchers should find train cars that are both empty and full at the same time of day to compare the results. Another important factor that should be taken into consideration for future research could be culture. A study done by Krys, Hansen, Xing, Azarota, and Yang (2013), showed that in different cultures, smiling is interpreted in different ways. In countries such as China and Germany, Krys, et al. (2013) actually found that smiling individuals were thought to be less intelligent than non – smiling individuals. This factor could significantly have affected the results of the study.
This study focused on one specific subway line in NYC. This study could be improved by using other subway lines both in NYC and in other countries as well. It could also be said that the gender of the researcher might affect the results as well. If there had been a single male researcher smiling at women on a subway at 1:20 am, the results might have been different. An important fact to keep in mind about this study also is that is was conducted in the summer of 2017. During the 2017 summer, commuters have been especially stressed due to repairs and construction happening throughout the subways systems. Due to these disruptions in service, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, has dubbed this summer the “summer from hell”.