We have all heard the term “Personal Space” used before in one context or another, but what does it really mean? Animals for centuries have been known to have their personal space and territories, snakes will attack you if your around their nest of eggs, dogs will bite you if you come too close into the territory their protecting, Lions will stay away from other Lion prides marked (by urine and poo) land and so forth.In the 1960′s Dr Edward Hall was one of the pioneers in the study of human personal space or what he called “proxemics“, Humans too have marked territories…we have marked the borders of our countries, borders of our states, borders of our cities, the borders of the suburb and we have even fenced our houses to establish the outline of our land just like the Lions.

What is interesting however is that apart from the obvious borders we have created, we also have invisible air borders around us…certain distances reserved for certain people, how comfortable would you feel if a perfect stranger was standing right next to you thrusting his body against yours and feeling his hot breath on your neck (uff…this is turning erotic! :S)? Ever wondered why we avoid eye contact in trains? feel spaciously violated in elevators and public transport?

Invisible Zoning

We all carry an invisible air bubble around us that we feel comfortable in, as soon as someone comes to close inside our bubble…we will immediately feel discomfort and start becoming anxious.This bubble is created in our childhood and it varies depending on the location you grew up in, for example, someone that grew up in the country side or on a farm is use to having lots of space to themselves and therefore their bubble would be significantly bigger than someone who grew up in New York or New Delhi where the population is denser and everywhere is more crowded.A few years ago in Spain they decided to add extra seats in class rooms as the population was growing instead of expanding the schools, the result was catastrophic as the students not only could retain less information but became significantly more violent by the invasion of personal space and started fighting each other.

There’s general zoning distances you can keep in mind if you live in the city area of a Western country, some of these distances are increased by interaction of two men and decreased by the interaction of two women, they break down into the following:

• Intimate Zone: About 15 to 45 cm’s (6 to 18 inches) this is the most important zone of them all as it is only reserved for a select few of people, this includes parents, love partners, children, family and very close friends, the proximity chosen by the person is also dependant on who it is…only love partners or our children would be allowed to engage in close physical proximity (15 cms or less) specially in the hip area as opposed to a distant family member giving us a goodbye kiss.Anyone who is not meant to be in the Intimate Zone and enters it will cause physiological changes (such as increased heart rate) in our body as we will feel threatened.
• Friend Zone: About 45 cms to 1.2 meters (18 to 46 inches) this is the distance we reserve for social gatherings such as parties, friendly interactions ect…
• Social Zone: About 1.2 to 3.5 meters (4 to 12 feet) this zoning is reserved for strangers we just met, acquaintances and anyone we interact with that we haven’t established a relationship with.
• Audience Zone: Anything over 3.5 meters (12 feet) is used to address an audience or large group of people like playing Charades.

Crowded Places

To put the zoning example to the test, go to anywhere that has large crowds of people who are forced to have their Intimate Zone violated and are in between objective locations, like public transportation from trains to buses, elevators, lines at the supermarket or museum and observe these attitudes in yourself and others as if we all followed these unwritten rules;

• Eye contact must be avoided at all costs.
• Show no emotion whatsoever and maintain an expressionless face.
• If standing in a large compact crowd; remain rigidly stiff as a pole and avoid any physical movement.
• You are a selective mute for this journey even if you see somebody you know, hold your breath if possible.
• Act busy, pretend to read a book, newspaper, take out your phone and text or watch the floor numbers change in the elevator.

Another thing to notice is, if we have the option to choose where to sit or what to claim as a space of our own…we will select the seat that is located right in between two other claimed personal spaces rather than sit in the immediate seat to someone else (look at the main article photo up the top).Have you ever gone driving in your car and noticed the person in the car next to you applying makeup, picking their nose, combing their hair as if nobody could see them? It is thought our personal space can change depending on the object we choose to entrust our Intimate Zone in and giving it the power to become an extension of it (read about Property below), like the father who has his personal chair in the lounge room and doesn’t like anyone else using it because it has become an extension of his intimate zone…well the same can happen with cars where the borders of our car become our invisible air bubble defining our Intimate Zone borders, hence why when someone is tail gaiting us or cutting us off, we feel our Intimate Zone is being invaded many times resulting in cases of Road Rage.

Property

Apart from Personal space amongst us humans there is another strange thing that exists to mark our space, belongings or possessions.You’ll notice when someone is bragging about their new car or boat they will start leaning against it or putting their foot on it while making statements such as “Yep…this is my new baby!”, it doesn’t only apply to material objects though as couples will do this just as often by embracing each others arms or leaning against one another, this form of creating some sort of physical contact to what is ours is a way of giving the illusion that the object or person is an extension of our body and therefore part of our personal space or property.

Women will start “grooming” their husbands by touching their clothes, fixing their ties not only to show affection but to display to the competition that he is spoken for “He’s mine! Stay back bitches!!”.My teachers would always complain I was being disrespectful by putting my feet on the desks and I would always answer “this is something between me and the desk, if he doesn’t complain or find it disrespectful why should you?” but in fact such a simple act was really an unconscious way of claiming that desk as my property, you can also see such acts with people who lean on the front door of their house or the school bullies leaning on benches, the walls of the hallway or classroom as they believe the school is their property and therefore have the right to do whatever they want with any kid in it…if you get a bully on your front lawn and challenge him to a fight, see how confident they will feel.