Don't Stand So Close to Me

Abstract

Three studies investigated the effects of self-construal activation on behavior conducive to interpersonal proximity. Study 1 revealed that compared with control participants, participants who were primed with the independent (or personal) self sat further away from where they anticipated another person would sit in a waiting room. Results of Study 2 indicated that participants primed with the interdependent (or social) self sat closer to the anticipated other person than did those primed with the independent self. Finally, Study 3 used the chronic self-construal of participants to predict the seating distance in dyadic settings. Results showed that greater independence of participants' self-construals was associated with greater spatial distance during the interaction. Together, the studies provide clear evidence that self-construal activation automatically influences interpersonal behavior as reflected in the actual distance between the self and others. Results are discussed in terms of the functions and motives connected to self-construals.

Gender Moderates the Influence of Self-Construal Priming on Fairness Considerations

“…Previous research has established that this task can effectively prime self-construal (Trafimow et al, 1991; Ybarra and Trafimow, 1998; Holland et al, 2004; Oyserman and Lee, 2008; Lee and Jeyaraj, 2014). Thinking of similarities with close others decreases subjective interpersonal distance, while thinking of differences enhances such distance.…”

Are there “His” and “Her” Types of Decisions? Exploring Gender Differences in the Confirmation Bias

“…Obviously, our results reported so far provide no evidence for the assumed underlying process. However, one method commonly used to demonstrate the role of selfconstrual is measuring one's chronic self-construal (e.g., Holland et al 2004, Study 3 [German sample]). In an additional study we used this method to reveal evidence for the assumed process with regard to female decision-makers.…”

Religiosity and the motivation for social affiliation

“…To minimize demand characteristics and self-presentation bias, we measured social affiliation motives using unobtrusive and behavioral measures. First, reasoning that people who are motivated to affiliate should initiate social interactions, we deployed a behavioral measure of physical closeness (adapted from Holland, Roeder, Brandt, & Hannover, 2004). In this behavioral task, physical closeness to another person is used as an indicator of desire for social closeness and as a precursor for any subsequent interaction.…”

“…We used a waiting room task to measure participants’ physical distance/closeness to another (fictitious) participant (adapted from Holland et al, 2004). Research has shown that physical and social distances are conceptually related (Bar-Anan, Liberman, Trope, & Algom, 2007) and that people who are high in affiliation motivation interact physically closer to other people (McAdams & Powers, 1981).…”