Cross-Cultural Differences in the Cognitive Inference of Neighborhood Safety Using Physical Structures

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Cognitive Inference of Neighborhood Safety Using Physical Structures

(A presentation at the March 2010 Conference of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society.)

Jeremy Cohen (Binghamton University; jcohen3@binghamton.edu), Charles Norton (Binghamton University), Daniel T. O'Brien (Binghamton University)

ABSTRACT

The disorder in physical structures correlates with residents’ ability to govern their neighborhood, and previous studies show that observers use this information to accurately estimate the local safety level. We aimed to replicate these findings while also evaluating the role of culture in the development of this adaptation. Subjects described their background as urban, rural or suburban before rating the social quality of pictured suburban neighborhoods. Afterwards, subjects reported the extent to which they used different features of the images. When compared to neighborhood ratings provided by residents, subjects demonstrated the ability to make accurate judgments, however those made by urban individuals were less so. Urban individuals used paved surfaces more than suburban individuals, who used them more than rural individuals. Attention to disorder is an adaptation for assessing the control people have over their local environment, and here we see evidence that its focus is influenced by personal experience.