Science
12 December 2008:
Vol. 322 no. 5908 pp. 1681-1685
DOI: 10.1126/science.1161405
Vol. 322 no. 5908 pp. 1681-1685
DOI: 10.1126/science.1161405
Abstract
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.
