Pietro notices that when there are empty seats on the bus, nobody ever sits beside a stranger. However, when the bus is crowded,
people sit beside strangers all the time. He noticed that the same thing happens in movie theaters, the school cafeteria, and even the classroom. Pietro's observations suggest that people's behavior in these situations is governed by:
Social categorization refers to the process of analyzing other people's characteristics in order to determine their position within the social group.
In the scenario above, strangers that meet on public property would most likely perceive other individuals as non-threatening outsiders.If they have enough space to be far away from the stranger, they would. In crowded spaces, the sense of security is increased and the need to make use of space available as well.
Our identities that we tend to hold on are based on social categories which are social groups that we each identity with such as race , ethnicity and gender
This categories are what we use to associate with others and make inference towards others
Like when you are walking in town and see a man dressed in dirty clothes your mind quickly goes to these categories to assign this individual and to tell you how you should respond to this person.
Social categorising is our way of defining a situation without having to think hard about it for example you see a person who is a stranger in the bus your mind quickly analyse that you don't know this person then you can sit next to where they are sitting so you are categorising them as strangers hence you have no association with them so you tend to stay away cause you also probably feel you can't trust them unless if there are many people around.
