The experience of crowding may produce _________________.

The correct answer is Option (2) → Loss or decrease in privacy

Crowding is a feeling of discomfort because there are too many people or things around us, giving the experience of physical restriction and sometimes the lack of privacy. The experience of crowding has four features: feeling of discomfort, loss or decrease in privacy, negative view of the space around the person, and feeling of loss of control over social interaction.

Option (1) Feeling of comfort — Incorrect. Crowding brings the very opposite, a feeling of discomfort; it is an environmental stressor.

Option (2) Loss or decrease in privacy — Correct. With too many people around, a person has less space and time to be alone, so privacy is lost or reduced. It is one of the four features of crowding.

Option (3) Positive view of the space around the person — Incorrect. A crowded person takes a negative view of the space around her or him, because the space feels too small.

Option (4) Feeling of control over social interaction — Incorrect. In a crowd one cannot choose whom to meet or avoid, so crowding brings a feeling of loss of control over social interaction.

Note: The features of crowding were there in the chapter ‘Psychology and Life’ of the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023, and are not there in the NCERT book (2025-26), which only names crowding among the environmental stresses. Hence this question has been picked from the pre-rationalised NCERT.