Keizer Kees, Lindenberg Siegwart, Steg Linda
Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, 9712 TS Groningen, Netherlands.
Science. 2008 Dec 12;322(5908):1681-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1161405. Epub 2008 Nov 20.
Imagine that the neighborhood you are living in is covered with graffiti, litter, and unreturned shopping carts. Would this reality cause you to litter more, trespass, or even steal? A thesis known as the broken windows theory suggests that signs of disorderly and petty criminal behavior trigger more disorderly and petty criminal behavior, thus causing the behavior to spread. This may cause neighborhoods to decay and the quality of life of its inhabitants to deteriorate. For a city government, this may be a vital policy issue. But does disorder really spread in neighborhoods? So far there has not been strong empirical support, and it is not clear what constitutes disorder and what may make it spread. We generated hypotheses about the spread of disorder and tested them in six field experiments. We found that, when people observe that others violated a certain social norm or legitimate rule, they are more likely to violate other norms or rules, which causes disorder to spread.
想象一下，你居住的社区布满了涂鸦、垃圾和未归还的购物车。这样的现实会导致你更多地乱扔垃圾、擅自进入他人领地甚至偷窃吗？一种被称为破窗理论的观点认为，无序和轻微犯罪行为的迹象会引发更多的无序和轻微犯罪行为，从而导致这种行为蔓延。这可能会导致社区衰败，居民的生活质量下降。对于市政府来说，这可能是一个至关重要的政策问题。但无序真的会在社区中蔓延吗？到目前为止，还没有强有力的实证支持，而且也不清楚什么构成无序以及什么可能导致其蔓延。我们提出了关于无序蔓延的假设，并在六个实地实验中对其进行了检验。我们发现，当人们观察到其他人违反了某种社会规范或合法规则时，他们更有可能违反其他规范或规则，这会导致无序蔓延。
