The Spreading of Disorder

Originally published in Science Express on 20 November 2008 Science 12 December 2008: Vol. 322. no. 5908, pp. 1681 - 1685 DOI: 10.1126/science.1161405

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REPORTS

The Spreading of Disorder

Kees Keizer,^* Siegwart Lindenberg, Linda Steg

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.

Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, 9712 TS Groningen, Netherlands.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: K.E.Keizer@rug.nl