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Traditionally, scientists believed that crowded housing conditions increased aggression in animals. Recent research on captive primates fails to support a linear relationship between population density and aggressive behavior. Our study is the first to investigate the effects of acute crowding on a New World primate. We observed brown capuchins (Cebus apella) under 2 different spatial conditions: a control that offered the full indoor space in the enclosure and a short-term experimental condition that restricted the capuchins to approximately half the amount of space of the control condition. We compared rates of self-grooming, aggression, contact sitting, social grooming, and play between both conditions. We conducted a mixed factorial ANOVA at the individual level while taking subject sex and age class into account. Intense aggression, play, and social grooming decreased significantly in crowded conditions, suggesting that capuchins avoid social encounters if spatially confined. Their strategy for coping with acute crowding via a decrease in all forms of social behavior is intermediate between chimpanzee and macaque strategies in similar experiments. The only behavior to increase under crowding was a nonsocial, self-directed behavior with the potential of reducing arousal: self-grooming.

Restrictive emotionality and restrictive affectionate behavior between men, 2 components of male gender role conflict (O’Neil, Helms, Gable, David, & Wrightsman, 1986) were studied to understand their mediating role in the association between 2 Latino masculinity ideologies (i.e., machismo and caballerismo) and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Four separate path analyses (Mplus, V 7.11, Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2013) were used to test for the hypothesized indirect effects. Results did not indicate support for any of the 4 hypothesized indirect effects with a community-based sample of 202 adult Latino men. However, significant associations between machismo, age, and help-seeking attitudes were found. Implications of these findings as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.

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