A Cross-National Comparison of Some Social Patterns of Urban Pedestrians

Abstract

An observational study of urban pedestrians in six national groupings was undertaken to provide quantitative cross-cultural data on various social behaviors in a naturalistic setting. At 155 sampling points in shopping, park, and entertainment areas within major cities in 3 Moslem countries (Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan), England, West Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the United States, E recorded grouping, interaction, and physical contact patterns of 21, 316 pedestrians by sex and five estimated age categories. In representative major findings, national tendency to form groups was in the order given above, there were few national differences in interaction frequency, and Italians, West Germans, and Englishmen contacted more than Americans, Swedes, and Moslems.