scholarly journals Where does one stand: a biological account of preferred interpersonal distance

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anat Perry ◽  
Nikolay Nichiporuk ◽  
Robert T. Knight
2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuai YANG ◽  
Xiting HUANG ◽  
Youguo CHEN ◽  
Yuling FU ◽  
Mengchao LIU

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Welsch ◽  
Marlene Wessels ◽  
Christoph Bernhard ◽  
Sven Thönes ◽  
Christoph von Castell

AbstractIn the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been mandated to keep enlarged distances from others. We interviewed 136 German subjects over five weeks from the end of March to the end of April 2020 during the first wave of infections about their preferred interpersonal distance (IPD) before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, subjects adapted to distance requirements and preferred a larger IPD. This enlarged IPD was judged to partially persist after the pandemic crisis. People anticipated keeping more IPD to others even if there was no longer any risk of a SARS-CoV-2 infection. We also sampled two follow-up measurements, one in August, after the first wave of infections had been flattened, and one in October 2020, at the beginning of the second wave. Here, we observed that IPD varied with the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 within Germany. Overall, our data indicated that adaptation to distance requirements might happen asymmetrically. Preferred IPD rapidly adapted in response to distance requirements, but an enlargement of IPD may partially linger after the COVID-19 pandemic-crisis. We discuss our findings in light of proxemic theory and as an indicator for socio-cultural adaptation beyond the course of the pandemic.


Author(s):  
Tina Iachini ◽  
Francesca Frassinetti ◽  
Francesco Ruotolo ◽  
Filomena Leonela Sbordone ◽  
Antonella Ferrara ◽  
...  

Interpersonal space (IPS) is the area surrounding our own bodies in which we interact comfortably with other individuals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping larger IPS than usual, along with wearing a face mask, is one of the most effective measures to slow down the COVID-19 outbreak. Here, we explore the contribution of actual and perceived risk of contagion and anxiety levels in regulating our preferred social distance from other people during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. In this study, 1293 individuals from six Italian regions with different levels of actual risk of infection participated in an online survey assessing their perceived risk to be infected, level of anxiety and IPS. Two tasks were adopted as measures of interpersonal distance: the Interpersonal Visual Analogue Scale and a questionnaire evaluating interpersonal distance with and without face mask. The results showed that the IPS regulation was affected by how people subjectively perceived COVID-19 risk and the related level of anxiety, not by actual objective risk. This clarifies that the role of threat in prompting avoidant behaviors expressed in increased IPS does not merely reflect environmental events but rather how they are subjectively experienced and represented.


2021 ◽  
pp. 014616722098837
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Sorokowska ◽  
Supreet Saluja ◽  
Piotr Sorokowski ◽  
Tomasz Frąckowiak ◽  
Maciej Karwowski ◽  
...  

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch.


1977 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy B. Ehrlich ◽  
Andrew Broughton ◽  
Glen M. Vaught

Lefcourt and Telegdi's concepts of congruence and incongruence between perceptual skills and expectancies were examined with respect to interpersonal behavior. Four groups of subjects were formed using a portable rod-and-frame device and Rotter's locus of control scale. As predicted the two congruent groups used significantly less interpersonal distance with each of four different social stimuli as measured by Duke and Nowicki's comfortable interpersonal distance scale. There was no difference between congruent and incongruent groups on a self-report measure of interpersonal needs.


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