The Spreading of Disorder

There was a cool article in Science magazine last month. Researchers in Netherlands conducted a half-dozen experiments to test the validity of the so-called "broken windows" theory (BWT). The premise of the BWT is that being surrounded by disorderly/criminal activity can actually lead to increased bad behavior. So, if one is surrounded by litter, graffiti, or minor vandalism ... one is more likely to exhibit that same bad behavior, or worse. Apparently, before this article there was no quantifiable evidence to support the BWT.

Their experiments were quite clever. For instance, they set up in an alley near a shopping center in Groningen where people would park their bicycles. They put useless flyers on the bicycles while their riders were away and tested whether the riders would take the flyer w/ them or litter them on the ground when returning. For the control case, the alley walls were clear of graffiti. In the experimental case, the alley walls were graffiti'd. 33% of the riders littered in the clean wall case; but 69% littered the flyer in the graffiti case. The (subliminal) thinking was that 'hey, this place is ugly anyway; what's a piece of litter.'

In another experiment, they put two signs on a temporary fence that people would have to walk around to get to their parked car. One sign said "don't lock your bicycles to this fence" and the other said "don't walk through the area blocked by the fence". When the researchers locked bicycles to the fence, 82% of the people ignored the other sign. When there were no bicycles chained to the fence, only 27% broke the other rule.

In other experiments they found that people were twice as likely to steal money when surrounded by disorder / other bad behavior.

Isn't that cool? It seems to indicates that humans have a tendency to hold a shifting ethical code that varies depending upon what others are doing. I would hope my ethics are independent of that others are doing, but I know I'm influenced (the whole music downloading thing from a few years ago is probably a good example).

Looking at it from another more encouraging angle, the more I "behave" the easier it becomes for others to do so as well. Maybe it's part of growing older, maybe it's just part of our current situation; but sometimes the world seems to be careening off-track. Maybe in 2009 if we all do enough of the little things right, we can nudge us back on course?