Separate from the size of a population, how about its density? One study surveying thirty-three developed countries characterized each nation’s “tightness”—the extent to which the government is autocratic, dissent suppressed, behavior monitored, transgressions punished, life regulated by religious orthodoxy, citizens viewing various behaviors as inappropriate (e.g., singing in an elevator, cursing at a job interview).46 Higher population density predicted tighter cultures—both high density in the present and, remarkably, historically, in the year 1500.
