Listening to a conversation with aggressive content expands the interpersonal space.

Eleonora Vagnoni,Ana Tajadura-Jiménez,Flavia Cardini,Jessica Lewis,Suliann Ben Hamed

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0192753

Eleonora Vagnoni, Ana Tajadura-Jiménez + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192753

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Abstract

The distance individuals maintain between themselves and others can be defined as ‘interpersonal space’. This distance can be modulated both by situational factors and individual characteristics. Here we investigated the influence that the interpretation of other people interaction, in which one is not directly involved, may have on a person’s interpersonal space. In the current study we measured, for the first time, whether the size of interpersonal space changes after listening to other people conversations with neutral or aggressive content. The results showed that the interpersonal space expands after listening to a conversation with aggressive content relative to a conversation with a neutral content. This finding suggests that participants tend to distance themselves from an aggressive confrontation even if they are not involved in it. These results are in line with the view of the interpersonal space as a safety zone surrounding one’s body.

Highlights

The space close to our body is important given that it is where we physically interact with stimuli in the external world
We subtracted the response time of the participants from the total duration of the recording (208.59 s), with higher values indicating that the participants stopped the recording sooner (S1 File)
In the aggressive condition (M = 6.96 s, SE = 1.13 s) participants stopped the recording after 201.63 seconds while in the neutral condition (M = 4.55 s, SE = 1.06 s) after 204.04 seconds (Fig 2)

Summary

Introduction

The space close to our body is important given that it is where we physically interact with stimuli in the external world. In social psychology, ‘personal space’ is often used to define the emotionally-tinged zone around the human body that people experience as ‘their space’ [1] and which others cannot intrude without causing discomfort [2]. This definition suggests that personal space only exists during interaction with other people [3]. In the cognitive neuroscience tradition, instead, this space has been referred to as ‘peripersonal space’ (PPS) [6] and has been defined as the space immediately surrounding our body.

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