According to a new study from the Netherlands, a messy environment can make people long for order and inspire them to simplify and categorize things in their minds. Consequently, people may be more likely to stereotype and discriminate against others in such disordered contexts, researchers say.
Diederik Stapel and Siegwart Lindenberg demonstrated this effect with two field experiments and three laboratory studies, and they say the message to policy-makers is clear: Preventing neighborhoods from falling into disarray – and investing in repair and renovation – could help combat stereotyping and discrimination in society.
During a cleaners’ strike at a train station, while trash was strewn about the floor, the researchers asked 40 travelers to sit anywhere in a row of chairs and complete a survey about stereotypes. The first chair in the row was occupied by a person of another race. The researchers then repeated this exercise the following day, after the train station had been cleaned up, and found that travelers generally chose to sit farther away from the person in the first chair when the station was messy, compared to when it was clean.
Stapel and Lindenberg then hit the streets, polling 47 passersby about their stereotypes. During the first round of these interviews, tiles were removed from the sidewalk, a car was parked on the curb and a bicycle was left in the street. But on the second day, the street was cleaned up to make it look neat and orderly.
Stapel and Lindenberg found that passersby discriminated against others more and chose to donate less to a “Money for Minorities” fund while standing on the messy street, compared to the clean street.
Finally, the researchers performed a series of laboratory experiments to confirm that these messy environments had inspired people to quickly classify and stereotype others. They showed a group of volunteers pictures, symbols and words that were meant to evoke feelings of order, disorder or neutrality. They also polled these volunteers to gauge their individual need for structure in their lives, and assessed the volunteers’ stereotypes with the same survey used in the field experiments.
Stapel and Lindenberg suggest that disordered environments can inspire people to hastily classify things in their minds, often leading to stereotyping. Research in the 08 April 2011 issue of Science.
Source: Science/ AAAS via EurekAlert
