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[50] food and sex partners, and thereby exerts a negative impact on the well-being of the individual and the community. The effects of density on human populations, however, are considerably less clearcut than those observed among animal communities. Survey studies, for instance, suggest that the detrimental effects of population density may be offset by cultural traditions (Schmitt, 1957, 1966), and experiments concerning the human use of space provide further evidence that cultural norms mediate the perception and adjustment of interpersonal distance (Hall, 1966; Sommer, 1967, 1969). Moreover, laboratory investigations of human crowding dem-onstrate that when group size is held constant, and the physical concomitants of spatial restriction are controlled (eg, heat, stuffiness), high density exerts negligible effects on human task performance (Freedman, 1970; Freedman, Klevansky, and Ehrlich, 1971 …