Is Urbanism to Blame For Social Alienation?

"The statistical revelation behind all of these findings is that for every 10% increase in density, there is a 10% decrease in socialization. That's a simple, one-to-one inverse relationship that everyone can understand."

"Of course this scientifically researched revelation begs the question, 'Why is this so?' The authors of the study suggest that "crowding associated with a dense environment might spur a need for privacy, causing people to draw inward. Such behavior could reflect the old saying: ‘good fences make good neighbors.'' The authors' conclusion is that 'density has been shown to exert a negative influence on social interaction, undermining an important line of attack used by critics of urban sprawl.' This may be an inconvenient truth for the New Urbanist movement, but this negative view of density is hardly new."