A group’s sense of safety depends on relative space size, not absolute numbers

Evidence

Whether a group is “sufficiently large” may also be determined by the actual size or dimensions of the particular space into which it enters. A group of five may have a much greater sense of insulation from others if the dimensions are small than if they are large. A giant room tends to shrink even a good-sized group into insignificance, as many a hostess has learned to her sorrow. Thus, for example, groups of three or four, lost in a spacious air terminal, behave a good deal more like lone individuals (that is, speak more softly, move about less freely, and so on; see next chapter), than do groups of the same size in the more cozy confines of a small bus depot. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 824

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to Simmel’s blasé attitude and urban sensory overload—physical scale of space modulates social confidence, an architectural variable in the observer’s psychic armor.

Related

• Spatial scale determines whether a group feels insulated or isolated in public (similarity 0.93)
• Setting norms set the group size needed to feel at home in it (similarity 0.84)
• Group shielding power depends on relative group size, not absolute numbers (similarity 0.81)
• Group size needed for privacy varies with setting norms and spatial dimensions (similarity 0.78)