Urban‐Nonurban Differences in Social Behavior and Social Psychological Models of Urban Impact

An examination of urban‐nonurban differences in several aspects of social behavior shows that urbanites are different only in limited ways from their less urban counterparts. In an urban environment, there does appear to be less social contact between neighbors and less helpfulness and consideration shown toward strangers, while social contact between relatives and between friends is no different from what is found in smaller‐sized communities. These findings are most consistent with the urban impact models proposed by Milgram and Fischer, while they disconfirm Wirth's model. A fourth model developed by Gans seems also disconfirmed by this pattern of urban‐nonurban differences, though the Gans model is less firmly tied to the expectation of overall urban‐nonurban differences. A case is made in the paper that the city's influence on social behavior seems mediated by situational forces rather than by alterations of individual personalities. The paper concludes with an account of recent research on urban social behavior in Turkey. This study found urban‐nonurban differences on a number of measures, as well as differences within Turkish cities between an urban sample and a sample of squatter settlement residents, who resembled the town dwellers in their social behavior.