Personal Space Essay

Humans are surprisingly very territorial. Getting angry when their seat is “taken”, or when someone enters their room without knocking shows how much humans value personal space. For most people, the preferred bubble of space would be two feet or more, depending on if one is in public, or with a friend. It is considered a social norm to keep a distance away from strangers to avoid awkwardness and to avoid posing a threat. This idea is reflected all around the world: you see it on TV, and in the public. Society just tends not to notice its distinction because it is the “norm” to respect personal space. There are, however, a select few that are more social and are more intimate than normal who are willing to break the boundaries. As people encounter
It has been defined that “...the invisible boundary that marks our absolute limit of personal space [is] between eight and 16 inches from our faces”(Gray). Because of this zone of space, a place like an overcrowded train could prove the fact that when this social norm is broken, people are more on edge. This happens in the classroom, and most frequently in transportation- like the subway or a bus. Most oftenly, people put bags or coats to occupy the space or seats next to them, giving others a sign that they don’t want people sitting next to them, and hence their range of personal space is widened. In an elevator, people tend to place themselves so that the distance between them and everyone else is maximized. It usually starts off filling in the corners, then in the middle in order to conform to respecting the privacy of others, but also for oneself. In most of these scenarios, close contact is unavoidable; people will do all they can to extend the radius of their bubble of
The possessiveness, and value of your own territory. In research published in the journal Nature in 2009, Adolphs and his colleagues determined that “the bubbles are constructed and monitored by the amygdala, the brain region involved in fear” (Wolchover). The amygdala is a pair of almond-shaped brain regions that exist within each temporal lobe, controlling fear and the processing of emotion. Because the amygdala is what keeps you from getting too close to another person (who could possibly reach out and inflict injury) humans have established their own personal bubble of “protection”. The amount of distance from you and the next person measures what relationship they have with you- whether they are an acquaintance, a friend, or a stranger. The problem is “...some people always stand too close. Even on crowded public transport, there is inescapably close and threateningly close.” (Gray) This could explain why travel on the subway could give a traveller a stronger feeling of being in danger rather than riding in one’s own car. The invasion or limitation of personal space often increase one’s sense of danger because of how close everyone is. How people react or deal with these issues also vary depending on their geographic location, morality, culture and even