Investigation of the proxemic behavior of Iranian professors and university students: Effects of gender and status

Aliakbari, Mohammad; Faraji, Elham; Pourshakibaee, Parnaz

doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.10.021

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The less the mannequin was liked the farther the chosen distances from the mannequin. Our results confirm previous studies suggesting that women maintain shorter interpersonal distances than do men (Aliakbari, Faraji and Pourshakibaee, 2011;Uzzell & Horne, 2006;. Subjects kept larger distances from a mannequin than to a human partner.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…With this control, our male-male pairs consistently maintained larger distances than did female-female pairs, which lends credence to similar reports (see e.g. Aliakbari et al, 2011;White, 1975). The case is different for mixed-gender pairs.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Two studies found that malefemale pairs stood closest, female-female pairs were intermediate, and male-male pairs showed the greatest distance from each other (Baxter, 1970;Evans & Howard, 1973). In contrast, Aliakbari, Faraji and Pourshakibaee (2011) reported that female pairings assumed the smallest distance, followed by male-female pairings, and male-male pairs remained most distant (see also Caplan & Goldman, 1981). Other studies only found limited (Remland, Jones & Brinkman, 1995) or no support for the existence of gender differences in interpersonal spacing (Bailenson et al, 2001;Hayduk, 1981).…”

Section: Subjects Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The shape of personal space

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The notion of a personal space surrounding one's ego-center is time-honored. However, few attempts have been made to measure the shape of this space. With increasing use of virtual environments, the question has arisen if real-world aspects, such as gender-effects or the shape of personal space, translate to virtual setups. We conducted two experiments, one with real people matched according to body height and level of acquaintance in a large laboratory setting, and one where subjects faced a virtual character, likewise matched to their body height. The first experiment also used a mannequin in place of the second human observer. The second experiment additionally manipulated the perspective of the subject to compare estimates of interpersonal distance between an egocentric and an allocentric perspective (in third-person view). Subjects approached (or were approached) from different angles until a comfortable distance for conversation with a stranger was reached (stop-distance task). Personal space turned out to be rather circular with a radius of about 1 m. Male pairs kept larger distances from one another than female or mixed-gender pairs. All subjects assumed larger distances to the mannequin compared to the real observer. Very comparable distances were preferred to the avatar in the virtual environment. Also, it did not matter whether the subject was engaged in active approach, was approached, or merely adjusted the distance between two avatars. Implications for theories of personal space are discussed.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Subjects Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The shape of personal space

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research on gender differences in the IPS is quite abundant. Several studies found that male dyads maintained the largest comfort distance and female dyads maintained the closest distance, whereas mixed-gender dyads maintained an intermediate distance (Caplan and Goldman, 1981;Aliakbari et al, 2011;Hecht et al, 2019). In other studies, the closest distance was found in mixed-gender dyads, followed by female dyads and male dyads (Baxter, 1970;Evans and Howard, 1973).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

An Investigation Into Interpersonal and Peripersonal Spaces of Chinese People for Different Directions and Genders

Xiong

Lee

2020

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study explores the interpersonal space (IPS) and peripersonal space (PPS) of Chinese people and evaluates the relationship between the two spaces for different directions and genders. Seventy-one participants were recruited for this study. Participants were required to determine their IPS in eight directions (0 • , 45 • , 90 • , 135 • , 180 • , 225 • , 270 • , 315 •) when approached by male or female confederates in the comfort distance task. Each participant was also asked to judge their PPS in five directions (0 • , 45 • , 90 • , 270 • , 315 •) following the same procedure. Results showed that their IPS was significantly influenced by direction (p < 0.05), with the largest distance in the front (0 •) and the closest distance in the rear (135 • , 180 • , 225 •), indicating noncircular IPS among Chinese subjects. Moreover, the PPS on the right side (90 •) was larger than in other directions (0 • , 45 • , 270 • , 315 •). Participants maintained larger IPS than PPS in the front, but the IPS was closer than PPS on the right and left sides. When facing a female confederate, larger IPS was preferred than PPS, whereas the opposite held true when facing a male confederate. Comparison of participants' arm length and PPS showed that the reachability distance was overestimated in the front but underestimated laterally. The findings of this study can be applied to environmental design, space utilization, and social interaction.

show abstract

“…Although the studies have sometimes yielded contradictory results (Gifford, 1982;Hayduk, 1983), the overall findings suggest that in male-male interactions, ID is longer than in male-female or female-female interactions (Bailey, Hartnett, and Gibson, 1972;Beaulieu, 2004;Gifford, 1982;Iachini et al, 2016). However, research in two majority Muslim countries, Egypt and Iran (Aliakbari, Faraji, and Pourshakibaee, 2011) have indicated that male-female interactions require the largest ID between the interactants. The authors of these studies have suggested that this effect may be due to the dominant Islamic values in these countries.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of gender, religiosity and personality on the interpersonal distance preference: a virtual reality study

Hatami

Sharifian

Noorollahi

et al. 2020

Communication Research Reports

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Interpersonal distance (ID) is an important aspect of human nonverbal behavior. Both situational and dispositional factors play roles in interpersonal distance preference (IDP). In the present study, we investigated the effect of gender, religiosity, and Big Five personality factors on IDP in an Iranian sample. Forty-six university students watched fourteen 360-degree video clips via a virtual reality headset. In each video-clip, a male or a female actor spoke toward the camera from a particular distance and participants rated the favorability of each distance. Results showed that at the middle-range distances, religious individuals exhibited a pronounced gender bias by rating their distance from the same gender actor more favorable than the same distance from the opposite gender actor. Furthermore, openness to experience was correlated with the favorability of the middle-range distances. These findings can be justified by dominant Islamic values in Iran and specific characteristics of openness to experience.

show abstract

Investigation of the proxemic behavior of Iranian professors and university students: Effects of gender and status

Cited by 13 publications

References 21 publications

The shape of personal space

The shape of personal space

An Investigation Into Interpersonal and Peripersonal Spaces of Chinese People for Different Directions and Genders

The effect of gender, religiosity and personality on the interpersonal distance preference: a virtual reality study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About