A previous study (McCauley and Newman) found that there was less eye contact with strangers in the city than in the suburbs. The interpretation offered was that decreased eye contact in the city is an adaptation to overload of strangers. It is known from laboratory experiments that adaptation to interpersonal overload is relatively fast. Baum and Greenberg found that people began employing strategies of social withdrawal within minutes after expecting interaction with a crowd of strangers. The authors of this study hypothesized that if decreased eye contact in the city is an adaptation to overload, then it too should occur within minutes. Experimenters attempted to make eye contact with commuters as they approached an express train linking city and suburb and, 20 minutes later, as commuters left the same train. During both morning rush from suburb to city and evening rush from city to suburb, commuters were less willing to meet an experimenter's eye at the city train station than at the suburban station. These results support the hypothesis. The results also indicate a convergence of laboratory and field data toward the conclusion that the effects of crowding on behavior are best understood as adaptation to interpersonal overload. (Author/GC)