The anisotropy of personal space

Robin Welsch, Christoph von Castell and Heiko Hecht

PLOS ONE, 2019, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Violations of personal space are associated with discomfort. However, the exact function linking the magnitude of discomfort to interpersonal distance has not yet been specified. In this study, we explore whether interpersonal distance and discomfort are isotropic with respect to uncomfortably far or close distances. We also extend previous findings with regard to intrusions into personal space as well as maintenance of distances outside of personal space. We presented subjects with 15 interpersonal distances ranging from 40 to 250 cm and obtained verbal and joystick-based ratings of discomfort. Whereas discomfort rose immediately when personal space was entered, the gradient was less steep for distances that exceeded the comfort region of personal space. Thus, personal space is anisotropic with regard to experienced discomfort.

Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217587 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 17587&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0217587

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217587

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().