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1 March 2004
Space
invaders
Defend your personal space
By Terry Riley
Gallagher, the comedian best known for the “Sledge-O-Matic,” noted
that people must like crowds because wherever you see a crowd, you see a
lot of people. This observation is not altogether facetious when
describing air travelers. Every day hundreds of thousands of flyers seem
to prefer to deal with the crowds associated with air travel—perhaps
“endure the crowds” is a better description—rather than make use of other,
roomier, but slower forms of transportation.
The presence of other travelers in close proximity to us, repeatedly
invading our personal space, does however, take its toll in increasing our
levels of stress. But why does the nearness of strangers make us anxious?
And what can we do to avoid that anxiety when traveling?
Each one of us has our own “personal space,” an invisible area around
our body that, when penetrated by others, makes us feel uncomfortable,
sometimes even afraid. The boundaries around our personal space expand or
contract depending on, for the most part, the relationships we have with
the people who approach us.
For strangers, that boundary is set at about a foot and a half, but
this distance changes too. For instance, all other things being
equal—which of course is rarely the case when considering human
interaction—pairs of men keep greater distances from each other than pairs
of women. And male/female pairs get the closest—unless the interaction is
threatening, in which case women allow the most space. (Interestingly, the
popular notion that a person’s cultural background affects the boundaries
of his personal space has not been convincingly borne out by research.)
How does the concept of personal space help us understand why we feel
anxious when traveling? Dr. Jonathan Bricker, Staff Scientist in the
Department of Psychology at the University of Washington studies the
behavior of air travelers and the causes of their stress. Bricker has
found, not surprisingly, that standing in line at airports—being crammed
cheek-to-jowl with others—is one of the biggest stressors in air travel
today. And that stress is hardly alleviated when passengers find
themselves in crowed departure areas or sitting on airplanes packed to
capacity. “The constant crowding that happens to travelers can make them
feel trapped,” says Bricker, “and the response to that entrapment is
fear.”
So what can you do to defend the boundaries of your personal space
against intrusion and thereby reduce the stress of travel? Here are a few
tips if you don’t want others invading your space.
 Maximize
the number of vacant seats between you and others.
Select
a seat that is not immediately on a pedestrian throughway.
Choose
what environmental psychologists call “sociofugal seating.” These are
arrangements of chairs that discourage social interaction. Seats that are
in straight lines, that do not closely face one another, or even better,
that are positioned back-to-back are examples of sociofugal seating.
Keep
your face buried in activities like reading or paper work, hunch over your
task, appear preoccupied, look down, and for sure don’t make eye contact.
Set
up physical barriers. For example hold a newspaper up in front of you and
place personal items on adjoining chairs.
Erect
psychological barriers by “tying” yourself to another object or person.
For instance, watching a television can prevent people from positioning
themselves between you and the monitor; striking up a conversation with a
person one seat away can discourage people from sitting between the two of
you.
Finally,
spend more on your transportation and lodging. As Dr. Bricker notes, “Much
of what is purchased in ‘luxury’ travel is personal space.”
If none of these techniques work, remind yourself that most of the people
who are intruding into your personal space are having their personal
spaces invaded by you. There is some sense of comfort knowing you are all
in the same boat… or airplane.
© 2004 Applied Psychology
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