...destijds al eens mooi aangetoond door Philip Zimbardo (tevens degene achter het Stanford Prison experiment).
Van zijn
website:
"I conducted a simple field study to demonstrate the ecological differences between places where anonymity ruled versus those where a sense of community dominated. My research team abandoned used, but good condition cars in the Bronx, New York City and in Palo Alto, California, one block away from New York University and Stanford University, respectively. License plates were removed and hoods slightly raised -- to serve as ethological "releaser cues" for a potential vandal’s attack behavior. Hidden observers watched, took notes and photographed all those who took the bait. We expected more vandalism of the big city car than the smaller community car, and further expected that most would occur in the safety of dark and by adolescent vandals.
The bait worked swiftly in the Bronx; we had barely gotten our equipment set up from a vantage point in the psychology laboratory across the street, when the first vandals took something from the car. Within 10 minutes of officially beginning this study, the next vandals surfaced -- a father, mother and son who stopped their car and proceeded calmly to strip our car of its battery, radiator and the contents of the glove compartment and trunk. The parade of vandals continued for several days, some jacking up the car to steal its tires, or removed its seats or dashboard parts. When there was nothing of value left to strip, random destruction began. In 48 hours, we recorded 23 separate destructive acts by individuals or groups, who either took something from the abandoned vehicle or did something to wreck it.
But what about the fate of the abandoned Palo Alto car? Our time-lapse film revealed that no one vandalized any part of the car over a 5-day period. In fact, one day when it began to rain a passerby lowered the hood of our abandoned car-- God forbid the motor should get wet! As we were removing the intact car to the Stanford campus, three local residents called the police to say that an abandoned car was being stolen. (The local police had been notified of our field study). Here is one definition of “community,” where people care about what happens on their turf, even to the person or property of strangers. They do so perhaps making the reciprocity assumption that others in that neighborhood would similarly care about them and their possessions.
This field study was little more than a simple demonstration of how situational anonymity is related to vandalism.
(...)
I believe that environmental, societal conditions contribute to making some members of society feel that they are anonymous, that no one in the dominant community knows who they are, that no one recognizes their individuality and thus their humanity. When that happens, we contribute to their transformation into potential vandals and assassins--a danger to my person and my property -- and to yours."
) . Midden op een parkeerplaats in Rotterdam , en niemand die vroeg wat ik toch aan het doen was 
