Social Distance Increases Perceived Physical Distance

Won, Andrea Stevenson; Shriram, K. V.; Tamir, Diana

doi:10.1177/1948550617707017

Cited by 27 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Regarding the ratings of perceived physical distance, previous research has shown that it can be affected by a number of factors, such as perceived social distance (Won et al, 2018), social exclusion (Knowles et al, 2014;Pitts et al, 2014), motivation and desire (Balcetis and Dunning, 2010), as well as perceived threat (Cole et al, 2013). The pandemic has drastically changed our relationship with physical proximity, by associating it to the threat of infection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

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In most European countries, the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2020) led to the imposition of physical distancing rules, resulting in a drastic and sudden reduction of real-life social interactions. Even people not directly affected by the virus itself were impacted in their physical and/or mental health, as well as in their financial security, by governmental lockdown measures. We investigated whether the combination of these events had changed people's appraisal of social scenes by testing 241 participants recruited mainly in Italy, Austria, and Germany in an online, preregistered study conducted about 50 days after the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe. Images depicting individuals alone, in small groups (up to four people), and in large groups (more than seven people) were rated in terms of valence, arousal, and perceived physical distance. Pre-pandemic normative ratings were obtained from a validated database (OASIS). Several self-report measures were also taken, and condensed into four factors through factor analysis. All images were rated as more arousing compared to the pre-pandemic period, and the greater the decrease in real-life physical interactions reported by participants, the higher the ratings of arousal. As expected, only images depicting large gatherings of people were rated less positively during, compared to before, the pandemic. These ratings of valence were, however, moderated by a factor that included participants' number of days in isolation, relationship closeness, and perceived COVID-19 threat. Higher scores on this factor were associated with more positive ratings of images of individuals alone and in small groups, suggesting an increased appreciation of safer social situations, such as intimate and small-group contacts. The same factor was inversely related to the perceived physical distance between individuals in images of small and large groups, suggesting an impact of lockdown measures and contagion-related worries on the representation of interpersonal space. These findings point to rapid and compelling psychological and social consequences of the lockdown measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic on the perception of social groups. Further studies should assess the long-term impact of such events as typical everyday life is restored.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

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“…Following previous work on social closeness through mediated interactions [59], we asked 10 questions on liking, affiliation, and connectedness ( alpha = 0.92). We took the average of 10 social closeness questions for each individual and then took the average of both participants’ scores to create a group social closeness measure ( M = 3.429, SD = 0.586).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonverbal synchrony in virtual reality

2019

Self Cite

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How might nonverbal synchrony naturally evolve in a social virtual reality environment? And how can avatar embodiment affect how participants coordinate nonverbally with each other? In the following pre-registered between-subjects experiment, we tracked the movements of pairs of users during a collaborative or competitive task in immersive virtual reality. Each conversational partner controlled either a customized avatar body or an abstract cube that responded to their movements. We compared the movements of the actual user pairs between the two conditions, and to an artificial “pseudosynchrony” dataset composed of the movements of randomly combined participant pairs who did not actually interact. We found stronger positive and negative correlations between real pairs compared to pseudosynchronous pairs, providing evidence for naturally occurring nonverbal synchrony between pairs in virtual reality. We discuss this in the context of the relationships between avatar appearance, task success, social closeness and social presence.

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“…As described before, self-disclosure can be used to develop closeness in a relationship; see also research on the experimental generation of interpersonal closeness [35,36]. By communicating in a warm way with distant others, distance can be bridged and perceived closeness increased [37]. On the other hand, if individuals decide to not share or to even actively hide information, they might create (physical) distance between themselves and other persons by avoiding to meet them [34].…”

Section: Would the Disclosure Of Secrets Impact Social Distance?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Secretive and close? How sharing secrets may impact perceptions of distance

Jaffé¹,

Douneva²

2020

PLoS ONE

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Having secrets is incredibly common. However, secrecy has only recently started to receive more attention in research. What has largely been neglected so far are the consequences of secret-sharing for the relationship between sharer and receiver. In this project, we aim to fill this gap. Previous research has shown that closeness can make secret-sharing more likely. Building on research from the self-disclosure and relationship literature, we experimentally investigate whether secret-sharing might in turn increase perceptions of closeness. In addition, we test the valence of the secrets shared as potential driver of the hypothesized effect, as negative secrets might signal a high level of trust, but might also present a burden to the receiver. To provide a holistic picture, we build on a variety of methods to investigate three perspectives: Study 1 focuses on the receiver and tests whether another person sharing secrets (vs. nonconfidential information) decreases distance in the eyes of the receiver. Study 2 investigates lay theories and tests how an observer perceives the relationship between two people who share secrets (vs. nonconfidential information). Study 3 tests whether these lay theories about sharing secrets are predictive of behavior, and how a sharer might choose secrets of negative or positive valence to decrease perceived distance on the receiver's side. Our results will contribute to the understanding of how sharing secrets affects the way individuals think about each other, how close they feel to each other, and how they interact with each other. This is a Registered Report and may have an associated publication; please check the article page on the journal site for any related articles.

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Social Distance Increases Perceived Physical Distance

Cited by 27 publications

References 30 publications

Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nonverbal synchrony in virtual reality

Secretive and close? How sharing secrets may impact perceptions of distance

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