Humans, like most other species of animals, have what we call "personal
space". When we interact with other individuals, we prefer to be close
enough to them for effective communication, but not too close. We feel
uncomfortable when an individual gets too close or invades our personal
space. The selective advantage for this behavior may lie in our evolutionary
history as a social species. Most of the members of our social group are
potentially rivals or social enemies; these individuals were in the past
(and in some cultures still are) capable of inflicting bodily injury. We
are trying to serve two conflicting social demands: one, to interact socially
and thus foster cooperative behaviors, and two, to avoid potentially harmful
competitive interactions. Our personal space or preferred social distance
is a reflection of this internal conflict.
Personal space is affected by a variety of social factors. For instance, the personal space of married individuals is smaller when approached by the spouse than when approached by some other individual. Preferred personal distance between a married man and a woman who is not his spouse is greater when his spouse is present than when his spouse is absent. Personal space is greater (and emotional reaction is stronger) when individuals are approached (experimentally) by strangers who are perceived as "unattractive" or "creepy" than when approached by "attractive" or "normal" strangers. Intentional invasion of personal space may be used as an intimidating or threatening behavior in situations of social conflict (as in "in your face").
There are also cultural differences in personal space and in tolerance of intrusion. Elevators, buses, theaters, and many other "crowding" situations tend to reduce personal space; people who routinely find themselves in such situations have smaller personal space and more tolerance for intrusion (at least in the crowding situations) than do people who are unused to crowding. People from the wide-open spaces of the west may feel uncomfortable in the crowded bustle of the big city. Tactile communicative interactions that violate personal space (such as allogroming) are much more common in some cultures than in others. Such interactions foster social cohesion and cooperation.
As usual, our observational methods will be fairly simple (albeit somewhat
embarrassing). You will go out around the campus in pairs armed with tape
measures and data sheets, and perform an experiment. You will work in pairs,
with one individual being the experimenter and one being the observer/measurer.
Both will approach a potential experimental subject and request that the
potential subject participate in the experiment, and give a brief description
of the purpose of the experiment. With the assent of the subject, you will
next inform the subject of the procedure of the experiment: the experimenter
will approach the subject slowly, and the subject will stop the test when
he or she begins to feel uncomfortable. The experimenter will then begin
to approach the subject (from an initial distance of about 2 m). Once the
subject stops the test, the minimum distance between experimenter and subject
will be measured. The data should be recorded on the data sheets supplied,
which have four categories of gender and experimenter vs. subject.