Distance Matters: Physical Space and Social Impact

Abstract

Studies of college students and citizens of south Florida, United States, students in Shanghai, China, and an international sample of social psychologists show that social influence, measured by the frequency of memorable interactions, is heavily determined by distance. In all three cases, although there was a great deal of interaction with distant persons, the relationship between distance and interaction frequency was well described by an inverse power function with a slope of approximately -1, consistent with the expectation that social impact is proportional to the inverse square of the distance separating two persons. This result confirms one principle from Latane's 1981 theory of social impact and helps explain the ability of opinion minorities to cluster and survive in the face of majority influence.

Persuasion in ambient intelligence

“…Repetition in persuasive requests increases compliance (Latane et al 1995). The additive effect decreases as the number of repetitions increases but simple initial repetition of a request can greatly enhance the compliance.…”

Virtual Teams and International Business Teaching and Learning: The Case of the Global Enterprise Experience (GEE)

“…In addition, physical separation creates social "faultlines" and can result in conflict within teams (Hinds & Bailey, 2003) so that virtual teams may need to negotiate in order to work effectively (Cousins, Robey, & Zigurs, 2007). As such, participation in virtual teams presents challenges for team members in creating and maintaining trust (Elron & Vigoda-Gadot, 2006;Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1998;Latané, Liu, Nowak, Bonevento, & Zheng, 1995;Smith, 2008) which may be particularly fragile and temporary in this context (Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1998;Kanawattabachai & Yoo, 2002;Sarker, Ahuja, Sarker, & Kirkeby, 2011).…”

In-House Globalization: The Role of Globally Distributed Design and Product Architecture on Product Development Performance

“…Geographic distance reduces informal and spontaneous conversation opportunities (Allen 1977), formal meetings and face-to-face conferences (Audretsch 2003, von Hippel 1994. While members of physically proximate teams often enjoy social similarity, shared values and expectations (Latane et al 1995), members of globally distributed teams may find it more difficult to establish such harmonious social environments (Kraut et al 1998). As a natural consequence of shared values, individuals in close geographic locations find it easier to build trust based relationships (Lawson and Lorenz 1999).…”