Don't Stand So Close to Me: The Effect of Auditory Input on Interpersonal Space

Lloyd, David T.; Coates, Anna; Knopp, Jasmin; Oram, Sarah; Rowbotham, Sheila

doi:10.1068/p6317

Cited by 20 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…It has been reported that listening to news through headphones (versus loudspeakers) seems to shorten the interpersonal distance between the listener and the news anchor, thus providing a more intense, arousing and pleasant experience [41]. Our findings also extend the study by Lloyd et al [22] on the effect of different auditory input on interpersonal distance by linking changes in the interpersonal behavior of participants with differences on emotional state. In that study, an increase in preferred interpersonal distance during approach-distance tasks when wearing earplugs or headphones with music, as compared to the open ears condition, was found.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…One of the five possible music tracks was played and the participant listened to it until a short beep occurred, at approximately 12 s after the onset of the music track. This beep signaled the start for the participant to walk towards the Experimenter A (approach-distance task; see [22]), or for Experimenter A to walk towards the participant (stop-distance task; see [2]). The participants' task, which was indicated to them at the beginning of each block and trial, was to stop walking (in the approach-distance task) or to say “stop” (in the stop-distance task) when they began to feel uncomfortable with the distance between them and the experimenter.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though social scientists [14], [15] and psychologists have suggested that “listening to self-selected music may make individuals more comfortable and therefore pay less attention to others in the space around them, thus reducing interpersonal distances” [22], [23], the only empirical study to date [22] has not confirmed this hypothesis. In this study, three different auditory conditions were used: open ears, wearing earplugs or wearing headphones that delivered music described as relatively neutral.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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I-Space: The Effects of Emotional Valence and Source of Music on Interpersonal Distance

et al. 2011

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BackgroundThe ubiquitous use of personal music players in over-crowded public transport alludes to the hypothesis that apart from making the journey more pleasant, listening to music through headphones may also affect representations of our personal space, that is, the emotionally-tinged zone around the human body that people feel is “their space”. We evaluated the effects of emotional valence (positive versus negative) and source (external, i.e. loudspeakers, versus embedded, i.e. headphones) of music on the participant's interpersonal distance when interacting with others.Methodology/Principal FindingsPersonal space was evaluated as the comfort interpersonal distance between participant and experimenter during both active and passive approach tasks. Our results show that, during passive approach tasks, listening to positive versus negative emotion-inducing music reduces the representation of personal space, allowing others to come closer to us. With respect to a no-music condition, an embedded source of positive emotion-inducing music reduced personal space, while an external source of negative emotion-inducing music expanded personal space.Conclusions/SignificanceThe results provide the first empirical evidence of the relation between induced emotional state, as a result of listening to positive music through headphones, and personal space when interacting with others. This research might help to understand the benefit that people find in using personal music players in crowded situations, such as when using the public transport in urban settings.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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I-Space: The Effects of Emotional Valence and Source of Music on Interpersonal Distance

et al. 2011

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“…In order to cope with these situations, individuals employ strategies to feel more comfortable when confronted with the uneasiness of a personal space invasion. On public transport, such strategies might involve engaging in activities such as reading, playing with smartphones or listening to music over headphones (Evans and Wener, 2007;Hirsch and Thompson, 2011;Lloyd et al, 2009;Tajadura-Jiménez et al, 2011). A common strategy to deal with social proximity is therefore to withdraw attention to the wider outside environment and retreat into an attentional space confined to peripersonal space.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Keeping your distance: attentional withdrawal in individuals who show physiological signs of social discomfort

et al. 2015

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“…For example, PPS can be extended through tool-use (6–8), by satisfying social interaction with others allowing integrating them to one’s PPS (9) or by depriving individuals of auditory cues from the external world (10). PPS can also be shrunk by increasing the effort needed to perform a hand movement with wrist weights (11) or by listening to positive emotion-inducing music through headphones leading to a better tolerance of others’ proximity (12).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cynophobic Fear Adaptively Extends Peri-Personal Space

Taffou

Viaud‐Delmon

2014

Front. Psychiatry

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Peri-personal space (PPS) is defined as the space immediately surrounding our bodies, which is critical in the adaptation of our social behavior. As a space of interaction with the external world, PPS is involved in the control of motor action as well as in the protection of the body. The boundaries of this PPS are known to be flexible but so far, little is known about how PPS boundaries are influenced by unreasonable fear. We hypothesized that unreasonable fear extends the neural representation of the multisensory space immediately surrounding the body in the presence of a feared object, with the aim of expanding the space of protection around the body. To test this hypothesis, we explored the impact of unreasonable fear on the size of PPS in two groups of non-clinical participants: dog-fearful and non-fearful participants. The sensitivity to cynophobia was assessed with a questionnaire. We measured participants’ PPS extent in the presence of threatening (dog growling) and non-threatening (sheep bleating) auditory stimuli. The sound stimuli were processed through binaural rendering so that the virtual sound sources were looming toward participants from their rear hemi-field. We found that, when in the presence of the auditory dog stimulus, the PPS of dog-fearful participants is larger than that of non-fearful participants. Our results demonstrate that PPS size is adaptively modulated by cynophobia and suggest that anxiety tailors PPS boundaries when exposed to fear-relevant features. Anxiety, with the exception of social phobia, has rarely been studied as a disorder of social interaction. These findings could help develop new treatment strategies for anxious disorders by involving the link between space and interpersonal interaction in the approach of the disorder.

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Don't Stand So Close to Me: The Effect of Auditory Input on Interpersonal Space

Cited by 20 publications

References 12 publications

I-Space: The Effects of Emotional Valence and Source of Music on Interpersonal Distance

I-Space: The Effects of Emotional Valence and Source of Music on Interpersonal Distance

Keeping your distance: attentional withdrawal in individuals who show physiological signs of social discomfort

Cynophobic Fear Adaptively Extends Peri-Personal Space

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