Worchel and Teddlie's (1976) attributional model of crowding suggests that crowding is the individual's cognitive response when arousal is perceived as being caused by others being too close. Wilder (1981) has shown that when a person is perceived as a member of some social category the impact of their individual behavior is diminished. These two factors (categorization and interaction distance) were crossed in a 2 X 2 factorial design. The hypothesis that categorization reduces perceived crowding under conditions of close interaction was supported. The discussion focuses on the level at which categorization effects enter the attribution process.
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