Tight Spaces, Hard Races: Development and Testing of a Crowdedness Scale Linking Crowded Environments to Competition
Evolutionary behavioral sciences
2026
Crowdedness is defined as the subjective sense of spatial and social constraint caused by limited personal space and the presence of others. Although subjective crowdedness is distinct from objective population density, it is often operationalized using density measures, which undermines construct validity. Although evolutionary life history perspectives have assumed that subjective crowdedness serves as a socioecological cue of competition, this link has yet to be directly tested and thus remains largely hypothetical. Across four online studies involving 1,760 U.S. adults, we developed and validated an eight-item Crowdedness scale capturing perceived and experienced crowdedness and examined the link between subjective crowdedness and perceived competition. It was found that subjective crowdedness is distinct from objective residential population density. In addition, subjective crowdedness robustly predicted perceived competition, above and beyond objective residential population density. These findings provide direct evidence that subjective crowdedness independently cues competition. Our research offers a theory-consistent measure that equips researchers with a tool to investigate the psychological consequences of crowded living.
- Tight Spaces, Hard Races: Development and Testing of a Crowdedness Scale Linking Crowded Environments to Competition
- Edison Tan - Singapore Management UniversityJose C. Yong - James Cook UniversityChi-Ying Cheng - Singapore Management UniversityTse Shuen Wan - Singapore Management Univ, Sch Social Sci, Singapore, SingaporeAmy J. Lim - Murdoch University
- Evolutionary behavioral sciences
- Amer Psychological Assoc
- 14
- James Cook University
- 991005912899707891
- © 2026 The Author(s)
- School of Psychology
- English
- Journal article
research.portal.fulldisplay.sdgs.intro
research.portal.fulldisplay.sdgs.source
1