We investigate how the shape of the galaxy two-point correlation function as measured in the zCOSMOS survey depends on local environment, quantified in terms of the density contrast on scales of 5 h^(−1) Mpc. We show that the flat shape previously observed at redshifts between z= 0.6 and 1 can be explained by this volume being simply 10 per cent overabundant in high-density environments, with respect to a universal density probability distribution function. When galaxies corresponding to the top 10 per cent tail of the distribution are excluded, the measured w_(p)(r_(p)) steepens and becomes indistinguishable from Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) predictions on all scales. This is the same effect recognized by Abbas & Sheth in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data at z ≃ 0 and explained as a natural consequence of halo–environment correlations in a hierarchical scenario. Galaxies living in high-density regions trace dark matter haloes with typically higher masses, which are more correlated. If the density probability distribution function of the sample is particularly rich in high-density regions because of the variance introduced by its finite size, this produces a distorted two-point correlation function. We argue that this is the dominant effect responsible for the observed ‘peculiar’ clustering in the COSMOS field
