Read this short article published on the Cercle Psy website

In January 2012, RATP published its first sociological analysis of uncivil and aggressive behavior on the Paris metro, a white paper entitled « La civilité ça change la ville », based on user testimonials…

This aggressiveness is of concern not only to RATP, but to society as a whole. And with good reason: public transport reveals the evolution of societal behaviours,  » and the widespread feeling that social bonds are breaking down owes a great deal to the daily experience we have of these places of passage « , explain Julien Damon and Pierre-Yves Cusset, sociologists and authors of this white paper.

Today, four million passengers will still be using the Paris tube. And even today, there will be a multitude of assaults: insults, jostling, tripping, incendiary glances, blows… Passenger aggression? It seems to stem from the discomfort of the metro itself. At rush hour,  » you can see up to eight people crammed together per square metre « , says Julien Damon. This too-close proximity affects passengers. According to American anthropologist Edward T. Hall, a minimum physical distance is necessary between individuals. In this metro, their « intimate » sphere, between 15 and 45 cm, is impeded. A sphere that individuals usually invade to kiss or whisper a message in each other’s ear, and therefore reserved for lovers, close friends and their children. According to Laurent Bègue, professor of social psychology at Grenoble University and author of L’agression humaine (Dunod, 2010), crowded conditions, combined with noise, heat and unpleasant odours, encourage aggression in many species. Frustration gives rise to aggression, a paradigm underpinned in 1932 by the frustration-aggression theory of John Dollard, an American psychology researcher at Yale University’s Institute of Human Relations. The postulate is as follows: in a certain context, an individual’s frustration would encourage the rise of aggression, the expression of which would be cathartic and liberating.  » We then have to rely on individual resources to inhibit aggressive impulses, » adds Laurent Bègue. In this sense, metro users deploy self-control behaviors. And many withdraw into themselves with the help of walkmans, cell phones and books. The urban context also encourages the emergence of aggressive behavior:  » People don’t apply the rules of human interaction that apply in low-density environments, because they under-perceive the needs of others, » adds Laurent Bègue. So, even if the aggressiveness of Paris metro passengers is unanimously recognized, its causes are very difficult to define, and therefore to eradicate.