Ross Guy M, Portugali Juval
Porter School of Environmental Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Department of Geography and the Human Environment, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
R Soc Open Sci. 2018 May 23;5(5):171478. doi: 10.1098/rsos.171478. eCollection 2018 May.
Why do people in big cities behave differently to those living in small cities? To answer this question, in this paper a new concept of urban dynamics is presented that links city size to human behaviour. The concept has its origins in regulatory focus theory. According to the theory, goal-directed behaviour is regulated by two motivational systems, promotion and prevention. Individuals motivated by promotion goals (growth, accomplishment) focus on winning and tend to take risks, whereas those driven by prevention goals (safety, security) focus on not losing and try to avoid risk. Here we elaborate on the existing literature by linking the theory to the urban context. In our conceptualization, cities are powerful regulatory systems, and as such they impinge upon the way people regulate themselves in the urban space. Evidence from signal detection analysis is provided that supports this concept. The experience of a big-city context intensified both promotion-focused behaviour (a risky bias) for promotion-focused participants and prevention-focused behaviour (a conservative bias) for prevention-focused participants. The experience of a small-city context encouraged the opposite behavioural pattern in both cases. These findings suggest that the urban environment can influence the regulatory focus strategies of an individual in a way that cannot simply be explained by their personal regulatory focus. Specifically, the likelihood of one's behaving in a promotion- or prevention-oriented manner is dependent both on one's chronic regulatory focus and also on the urban context in which one lives. Based on this, we maintain that vibrant cities with a large population and a fast pace of life encourage extreme and polarized behaviours, whereas cities with a smaller population and a slower pace of life encourage more moderate and less polarized behavioural responses, which may explain why people in big cities take more risks, do more business, produce and spend more, and even walk faster.
为什么大城市的人行为举止与小城市的人不同？为了回答这个问题，本文提出了一个城市动态的新概念，将城市规模与人类行为联系起来。这个概念源于调节焦点理论。根据该理论，目标导向行为由两种动机系统调节，即促进和预防。受促进目标（成长、成就）激励的个体专注于获胜，倾向于冒险，而受预防目标（安全、保障）驱动的个体则专注于不失败，试图规避风险。在此，我们通过将该理论与城市背景联系起来，对现有文献进行阐述。在我们的概念化中，城市是强大的调节系统，因此它们会影响人们在城市空间中自我调节的方式。提供了信号检测分析的证据来支持这一概念。大城市环境的体验强化了以促进为导向的参与者的促进焦点行为（冒险偏差）和以预防为导向的参与者的预防焦点行为（保守偏差）。小城市环境的体验在这两种情况下都鼓励了相反的行为模式。这些发现表明，城市环境可以以一种不能简单地由个人调节焦点来解释的方式影响个体的调节焦点策略。具体而言，一个人以促进或预防为导向行事的可能性既取决于其长期的调节焦点，也取决于其生活的城市环境。基于此，我们认为人口众多、生活节奏快的充满活力的城市鼓励极端和两极分化的行为，而人口较少、生活节奏较慢的城市则鼓励更温和、两极分化程度较低的行为反应，这或许可以解释为什么大城市的人冒更多风险、做更多生意、生产和消费更多，甚至走路更快。
