Proxemics: The Concept of Personal Space
Hi All.
Have you ever had a situation where you are having a conversation with someone, and they are standing too close to you? Or maybe you are on public transport and you're feeling a bit uncomfortable because the seats aren't spaced out enough and the people next to you feel just a little too close?
This is the idea of personal space, and there's actually a lot of study into this exact topic. Personal space, or more scientifically Proxemics, is something that each person has within them.
The Post
To define Proxemics, it is the study of space when it comes to humans, and the effect that population density has on behaviour. Basically, it's the concept of personal space, which is the space around you and others.
Some may believe that when discussing the idea of the space that each person takes up, it is simply the mass of the person that matters. And they are correct, to a degree. However, many fail to consider how integral personal space is to the comfort of others. So, when thinking about the amount of space a person will take up in a normal situation, there is not only the mass of the person, but also a bubble of space around them as well.
This is why in a non crowded situation where personal space is infinged upon by another person, almost all people in that situation will assume that there is some kind of reason for this action. Maybe the person wants to hurt you, maybe they just want to be confrontational, maybe you are having an argument, or perhaps they are unaware of the general social rules regarding space. Each situation will be different.
Take a scenario for example. If there is an empty train with only one other person aboard, it would be considered inappropriate to take the seat next to them when there are an abundance of other seats to choose from. However, if the train is totally full and there is only one more seat next to this individual, it would be okay to take the seat. This is because the infringement of personal space is out of a necessity rather than out of choice.
A diagram below shows this idea of space, and where people should normally be depending on the zone.
As seen by the picture, it shows the four main zones when it comes to space and the concept of proxemics. These are mostly self explanatory, but the one I want to focus on is the social space, which is the zone that a vast majority of normal conversations should be within. Anywhere closer will feel like confrontation, or just be generally uncomfortable.
Something interesting about these zones is that it is actually different depending on the country in which you live. According to the diagram below, it shows a study of a few different countries, and how large or small the distance between strangers interacting is.
This is just something to think about when it comes to this topic. But, let's continue with the post.
Now, I don't think that we should be carrying around measuring tapes everywhere, measuring the EXACT distance that we are away from the people we know. I think not only would it be a lot of unneeded effort, it would also be very unusual to people around you. Rather, it's a simple guide that most people will understand and be able to get behind. Most if not all people can approximately measure the distances from people, and they will know if the interaction is uncomfortable or not.
It's an interesting topic to think about because it's an inbuilt thing that a lot of people can inwardly recognise, but perhaps is not really thought about in depth. Consider thinking about it the next time you talk to someone, because the space between you and the other person is actually a topic well researched and documented.
Endnote
This is a bit of a shorter post than normal, but I'll be back soon with some more longer posts soon. Hope you enjoyed it.