Preferred interpersonal distances: A global comparison

698039 JCCXXX10.1177/0022022117698039Journal of Cross-Cultural PsychologySorokowska et al. research-article2017 Article Preferred Interpersonal Distances: A Global Comparison Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 2017, Vol. 48(4) 577–592 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117698039 DOI: 10.1177/0022022117698039 journals.sagepub.com/home/jcc Agnieszka Sorokowska1, Piotr Sorokowski1, Peter Hilpert2, Katarzyna Cantarero3, Tomasz Frackowiak1, Khodabakhsh Ahmadi4, Ahmad M. Alghraibeh5, Richmond Aryeetey6, Anna Bertoni7, Karim Bettache8, Sheyla Blumen9, Marta Błażejewska1, Tiago Bortolini10,11, Marina Butovskaya12,13,14, Felipe Nalon Castro15, Hakan Cetinkaya16, Diana Cunha17, Daniel David18, Oana A. David18, Fahd A. Dileym5, Alejandra del Carmen Domínguez Espinosa19, Silvia Donato7, Daria Dronova12, Seda Dural20, Jitka Fialová21, Maryanne Fisher22, Evrim Gulbetekin23, Aslıhan Hamamcıoğlu Akkaya24, Ivana Hromatko25, Raffaella Iafrate7, Mariana Iesyp26, Bawo James27, Jelena Jaranovic28, Feng Jiang29, Charles Obadiah Kimamo30, Grete Kjelvik31, Fırat Koç24, Amos Laar6, Fívia de Araújo Lopes15, Guillermo Macbeth32, Nicole M. Marcano33, Rocio Martinez34, Norbert Mesko35, Natalya Molodovskaya1, Khadijeh Moradi36, Zahrasadat Motahari37, Alexandra Mühlhauser38, Jean Carlos Natividade39, Joseph Ntayi40, Elisabeth Oberzaucher38, Oluyinka Ojedokun41, Mohd Sofian Bin Omar-Fauzee42, Ike E. Onyishi43, Anna Paluszak1, Alda Portugal17, Eugenia Razumiejczyk32, Anu Realo44,45, Ana Paula Relvas17, Maria Rivas46, Muhammad Rizwan47, Svjetlana Salkičević25, Ivan Sarmány-Schuller48, Susanne Schmehl38, Oksana Senyk26, Charlotte Sinding49, Eftychia Stamkou50, Stanislava Stoyanova51, Denisa Šukolová52, Nina Sutresna53, Meri Tadinac25, Andero Teras54, Edna Lúcia Tinoco Ponciano55, Ritu Tripathi56, Nachiketa Tripathi57, Mamta Tripathi57, Olja Uhryn58, Maria Emília Yamamoto15, Gyesook Yoo59, and John D. Pierce , Jr.33 Abstract Human spatial behavior has been the focus of hundreds of previous research studies. However, the conclusions and generalizability of previous studies on interpersonal distance preferences were limited by some important methodological and sampling issues. The objective of the present study was to compare preferred interpersonal distances across the world and to overcome the problems observed in previous studies. We present an extensive analysis of interpersonal distances over a large data set (N = 8,943 participants from 42 countries). We attempted to relate the preferred social, personal, and intimate distances observed in each country to a set of individual characteristics of the participants, and some attributes of their cultures. Our study indicates that individual characteristics (age and gender) influence interpersonal space preferences and that some variation in results can be explained by temperature in a given region. We also present objective values of preferred interpersonal distances in different regions, which might be used as a reference data point in future studies. 578 Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 48(4) Keywords interpersonal distance, spatial behavior, culture, cultural psychology 1University of Wroclaw, Poland of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 3SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sopot, Poland 4Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 5King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 6University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana 7Catholic University of Milan, Italy 8The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong 9Pontificia Universidad Católica Del Perú, Lima, Peru 10Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 11D’Or Institute for Research and Education, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 12Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS, Moscow, Russia 13Russian State University for the Humanities, Russia 14Moscow State University, Russia 15Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil 16Ankara University, Turkey 17University of Coimbra, Portugal 18Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 19Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico 20Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey 21Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic 22Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 23Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey 24Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey 25University of Zagreb, Croatia 26Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine 27Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria 28University of Belgrade, Serbia 29Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China 30University of Nairobi, Kenya 31Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 32National University of Entre Rios, Concepción del Uruguay, Argentina 33Philadelphia University, PA, USA 34University of Granada, Spain 35University of Pécs, Hungary 36Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran 37University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran 38University of Vienna, Austria 39Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 40Makerere University Business School, Kampala, Uganda 41Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Nigeria 42Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia 43University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria 44University of Warwick, Coventry, UK 45University of Tartu, Estonia 46Universidad del Magdalena, Santa Marta, Colombia 47University of Karachi, Pakistan 48Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia 49TU Dresden, Germany 50University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands 51South-West University “Neofit Rilski,” Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria 52Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia 53Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia 54Mõttemaru OÜ, Tartu, Estonia 55Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil 56Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India 57Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India 58Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine 59Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea 2University Corresponding Author: Agnieszka Sorokowska, Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, ul. Dawida 1, 50-527 Wroclaw, Poland. Email: [email protected] Sorokowska et al. 579 Introduction Interpersonal space, or interpersonal distance, is an essential feature of individuals’ social behavior in relation to their physical environment and social interactions (Hall, 1966; Hayduk, 1983). It is a distance we maintain in interpersonal interactions, or in other words, “breathing space,” an abstract area that surrounds each individual (Hall, 1966; Madanipour, 2003; Sommer, 1969), comparable with either a shell, a soap bubble, or aura (Sommer, 1969). According to Hall (1966), this space helps regulate intimacy in social situations by controlling sensory exposure. The possibility of increased visual, tactile, auditory, and olfactory stimulation is enhanced at closer distances, and people may feel intruded and react negatively when others adopt and maintain too close of an interpersonal distance (Felipe & Sommer, 1966; Hall, 1966; Mazur, 1977; Sawada, 2003; Smith, 1981; Sommer, 1969). Classifying Social Distance The classical proxemic theory (Hall, 1966) classifies interpersonal distance into four categories, each of which reflects a different relationship between individuals (Baldassare & Feller, 1975). These four types of distance are (a) public distance (above 210 cm; in this distance, voice shifts to higher volumes, and eye contact is minimized); (b) social distance, maintained during more formal interactions (122-210 cm, this distance precludes all but visual and auditory stimuli); (c) personal distance, maintained during interactions with friends (about 46-122 cm, vision is no longer blurred, vocalizations increase); and (d) intimate distance, maintained in close relationships (from 0 to 46 cm, this distance is characterized by poor and blurred vision, and increased perception of heat and olfactory stimuli; Hall, 1966). Based on Hall’s (1966) theory, the interpersonal distance people choose while interacting with others depends not only on the personal attitude toward another person but also on certain characteristics of dyads, like their gender or age, and the social environment where the interaction takes place. Indeed, studies confirm that the preferred interpersonal distance might be influenced by gender (Aiello, 1987; Horenstein & Downey, 2003; Ozdemir, 2008; Patterson & Edinger, 1987; Smith, 1981; Vranic, 2003). Furthermore, age seems to be an important factor for predicting dyad distances (Aiello, 1987; Burgess, 1983; Gérin-Lajoie, Richards, & McFadyen, 2006; Ozdemir, 2008; Rapp & Gutzmann, 2000; Webb & Weber, 2003); younger people generally prefer closer interpersonal distances than older individuals. According to Hall’s (1966) theory, cultural norms are the most important factors to describe the preferred social distance. Hall stated that what is intimate in one culture may be personal or social in another, and suggested that there are specific customs regarding the spatial behavior. He grouped the cultures into two different classes: contact and noncontact cultures. Contact cultures use closer interpersonal distances and engage in more touching, whereas people in noncontact cultures exhibit opposite preferences and behaviors (Hall, 1966). The general rule of grouping suggested by Hall was the geographic location, with Southern European, Latin American, and Arabian countries being the so-called contact cultures, and North America, Northern Europe, and Asian populations being the noncontact cultures (Hall, 1966). Although Hall’s theory was frequently supported just by anecdotal evidence (see Baldassare & Feller, 1975), this notion constituted a basis for classical research on the cultural effects on human spatial behaviors. Below, we present a short overview of the previous findings and conclude with proposing some variables that could possibly account for previously observed variability. Cultural Differences Early cross-cultural research on spatial behaviors indicates that contact and noncontact groups differ significantly in preferred social distance. Studies show that Mediterranean societies prefer 580 Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 48(4) closer interactive distances than Northern European and Northern American societies (Evans & Howard, 1973; Ford & Graves, 1977; Hayduk, 1983; Little, 1968; Triandis & Triandis, 1967; Watson & Graves, 1966). Notably, many of these early cross-cultural studies were performed in the United States with foreign and native students as participants (Baldassare & Feller, 1975). Although some results were later confirmed (Beaulieu, 2004; Evans, Lepore, & Allen, 2000; Remland, Jones, & Brinkman, 1995; Sommer, 2002), other empirical findings do not fully support the notion that interpersonal distances are closer in Southern European, Latin American, and Arab countries than in North America, Northern Europe, and Asian populations (Forston & Larson, 1968; Mazur, 1977; Remland et al., 1995). The original classification of Asian societies as predominantly noncontact is also problematic given the mixed results of previous studies (Beaulieu, 2004; Sussman & Rosenfeld, 1982; Watson, 1970). Furthermore, the spacing preferences in African countries have never been examined. While showing variability of interpersonal distancing across cultures, previous results lack explanations as to why this variability occurs. It is an open question whether the division of cultures onto contact/noncontact based on geographical location is a detailed enough grouping rule for all populations across the globe, especially given that contact norms can vary widely across countries within the same continent even though they share cultural similarities (Shuter, 1976). It is likely that what has been explained in terms of vaguely defined cultural norms is underpinned by some psychological and ecological variables. Thus, we consider here several new variables that could be enumerated as distinguishing the countries that were previously found to be contact and noncontact—environmental factors (temperature of the inhabited region, parasite stress in a given country, and population growth rate) and sociopsychological factors (collectivism/individualism level, and wealth of the society, defined as Human Development Index [HDI]). We briefly justify our choices below. Environmental factors. In the group of environmental factors, temperature may likely be related to the differences in cultural patterns of social proximity, as it was found to influence social distances during shorter interactions (IJzerman & Semin, 2010; Williams & Bargh, 2008; Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008). Hotter climate affects emotional intensity (Sorokowski, Sorokowska, Onyishi, & Szarota, 2013), which is likely related to intense and closer interpersonal contacts. Importantly, the hypothesized relationship of distance preferences and temperature might be associated with Hall’s (1966) theory, as countries classified previously as contact cultures were also at the same time rather warm (see Sommer, 2002). However, increased temperatures result in increased parasite stress. This relationship offers an alternative, competing hypothesis on temperature–distance association that would include the indirect effect temperature has on interpersonal distance. Many diseases can spread by a simple touch (Schweon, Edmonds, Kirk, Rowland, & Acosta, 2013), and a recent study showed that people were able to detect some infection cues in the body odor of others—this early innate immune response altered the pleasantness of body odor samples (Olsson et al., 2014). Reduction of interpersonal contacts or increasing the interpersonal distance has for centuries been a part of behavioral adaptation against epidemics (Fenichel, 2013), and in regions that have historically suffered from high levels of infectious diseases, people are indeed less extraverted and open (Schaller & Murray, 2008). Interpersonal distancing pattern might be thus another important factor in pathogen avoidance, as maintaining farther distance can decrease potential contamination risk. As regions of higher temperature typically suffer from higher parasite stress than regions of lower temperature, the increased parasite stress might indirectly lead to higher interpersonal distances in cultures of warmer climate. Furthermore, maintaining too close interpersonal distance may result in increased arousal (Epstein & Karlin, 1975) and various forms of aggression and violence (see Regoeczi, 2008, for a review). It is therefore not surprising that social crowding produces avoidant response—this might be a way of avoiding conflicts (Worchel & Teddlie, 1976). Therefore, people Sorokowska et al. 581 from countries of rapidly increasing number of inhabitants might be more likely to prefer farther interpersonal distances, thus reducing the risk for potential conflicts. Withdrawal response in such situations might be of particular importance in regions of higher temperature, as heat might increase aggression (Anderson, 1987) and social unrest (Yeeles, 2015). Sociopsychological factors. In the group of social-psychological factors, regions characterized by closer interpersonal distances were rather poorer than regions characterized by farther preferred distances. The putative relationship of this variable to interpersonal distance is further suggested by the recent finding that the HDI was related to the level of social trust in a country (Özcan & Bjørnskov, 2011). We tested this observation by including HDI as one of the grouping variables in our study. Also, interpersonal distance might increase when interacting dyads differ in social status (Aiello & Jones, 1971; Dean, Willis, & Hewitt, 1975; Little, 1968). Possibly, in countries characterized with higher social inequality (i.e., lower HDI), the preferred distances might be greater. Furthermore, the Individualism–Collectivism dimension (IC), first defined by Hofstede (1981), is one of the most important constructs used for the classification of cultures. People from collectivistic cultures rely to a considerable degree on close intragroup relationships, whereas people from individualistic cultures are highly independent and have strong feelings of autonomy within the group (Hofstede, 2001). In the present study, a 178-nation index of collectivism called ingroup favoritism from Van de Vliert (2011) study was utilized. Contrary to Hofstede’s (2001) index, Van de Vliert index includes data on almost all countries around the world, which enabled us to analyze all the regions participating in our research. Conclusion In all, there is compelling evidence of cross-cultural variations in proxemic behaviors. Such differences might be underpinned by cultural norms, but at the same time, these norms could be associated with certain psychological and ecological variables. To replace previous speculations with solid empirical evidence, in the present study, we examined interpersonal distance preferences of 8,943 people inhabiting 53 study sites (42 countries) across the globe and across different social contexts. Given the exploratory nature of our empirical investigation, we are aware that at this stage of research, we cannot yet explain the exact mechanisms of influence of these variables on interpersonal distance preferences (although in the “Discussion” section, we speculate about the nature of relationship between the distance preferences and their significant predictors). Hypotheses Based on the prior assumption that people from different cultures differ in interpersonal distance preferences in different social contexts (social, personal, and intimate; Hall, 1966), we hypothesize significant variability in preferred interpersonal distances across countries when approaching a stranger (i.e., social distance), an acquaintance (i.e., personal distance), or a close person (i.e., intimate distance; Hypothesis 1). Second, consistent with numerous previous studies, we hypothesize that certain characteristics of interacting individuals, like gender or age, influence the preferences they have for interpersonal distance, with women and younger people maintaining closer interpersonal distances (Hypothesis 2). Third, we assume that cultural differences in interpersonal distancing are to some degree universally related to environmental and sociopsychological factors (Hypothesis 3). Based on earlier research and our assumptions, we hypothesize that some environmental and psychological factors could predict variability of interpersonal distance across countries. Lower population growth rate, higher ingroup favoritism, and higher HDI should be associated with closer interpersonal distance preferences. Furthermore, closer interpersonal distances should be observed in cultures of higher temperature, but it needs to be 582 Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 48(4) remembered that higher temperature increments parasite stress. Thus, two competing hypotheses might be presented regarding the temperature and distance preferences. If the effect of temperature on personal distance preferences is direct, closer interpersonal distances should be observed in cultures of higher annual average temperature. If the effect of temperature is indirect, we expect the opposite association. Materials and Methods Participants Our study was comprised of 8,943 participants (4,013 men, 4,887 women, and 43 unidentified) inhabiting 53 study sites in 42 countries. All participants provided informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. In every country, authors recruited the participants personally. We intended to conduct our study among community members, and not students, with as diverse a sample of inhabitants as possible for each study site. Therefore, participants were recruited through advertisements, through personal contacts, in shopping malls, and so on; the recruitment methods were very similar across all study sites. All participants were specifically recruited for this study, and the study was conducted during the same time across all locations. The participants were ensured anonymity of their responses. Demographic characteristics of the samples, as well as a list of all study sites, are presented in Table 1. Procedure Participants completed a questionnaire consisting of demographic questions (age, sex) and three graphic questions concerning their preferred interpersonal distance. Based on the classical Hall’s (1966) theory, we measured three separate categories of preferred interpersonal distances—distance to (a) a stranger, (b) an acquaintance, and (c) a close person. These measures reflected the previously defined categories of interpersonal distance: (a) social distance, (b) personal distance, and (c) intimate distance (Hall, 1966), respectively. To conduct cross-cultural comparisons, the questions asked needed to be easily understood by participants all over the world (the task could not be demanding or ambiguous). Thus, we decided to use a simple, graphic task, because it was mostly language independent (see Figure 1). Answers were given on a distance (0-220 cm) scale anchored by two human-like figures, labeled A for the left one and B for the right one (Figure 1). Participants were asked to imagine that he or she is Person A. The participant was asked to rate how close a Person B could approach, so that he or she would feel comfortable in a conversation with Person B. The participants marked the distance at which Person B should stop on the scale below the figures. Details on the applied method can be found in Supplementary File 1. In every country, the participants completed paper-andpencil questionnaires individually. In addition to participants’ report on gender and age, we analyzed country-specific environmental and sociopsychological factors: zoonotic and nonzoonotic parasite stress in a given region (Fincher & Thornhill, 2012), population growth rate (United Nations report, 2015), ingroup favoritism (Van de Vliert, 2011), average, yearly temperature in a given study site (provided by coauthors from given study sites), and the HDI (Human Development Report, 2013; http://hdr.undp.org). Statistical Analyses Our hypotheses focused on the general assumption that people across different cultures universally vary in the distances they prefer when interacting with others. The presented analyses aimed to explain the cultural similarities and variability. In the current sample, participants were nested 583 Sorokowska et al. Table 1. Demographic Characteristics for Each of the 42 Countries Included in the Study. Sample size Country Total Men Argentina Austria Brazil Bulgaria Canada China Colombia Croatia Czech Republic Estonia Germany Ghana Greece Hong Kong Hungary India Indonesia Iran Italy Kazakhstan Kenya Malaysia Mexico Nigeria Norway Pakistan Peru Poland Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Serbia Slovakia South Korea Spain Switzerland Turkey The United Kingdom Uganda Ukraine The United States Total 201 200 480 102 68 119 100 614 167 149 154 103 94 100 237 299 92 607 322 120 94 99 158 603 100 125 102 428 293 56 224 198 105 233 100 199 179 391 100 93 311 424 8,943 71 115 300 63 25 47 41 301 80 50 62 52 42 54 76 135 25 261 127 60 47 49 77 299 72 55 49 161 99 8 120 87 19 76 50 93 110 238 42 56 66 153 4,013 Age Women M (SD) Range 130 85 180 39 43 72 59 313 87 96 92 51 49 40 161 164 67 345 195 60 47 50 80 297 28 66 53 254 181 48 104 111 86 157 50 106 69 153 58 35 245 271 4,887 32.31 (11.16) 26.59 (9.73) 36.51 (10.35) 38.35 (8.95) 38.43 (10.15) 33.09 (6.41) 41.10 (11.81) 44.75 (11.65) 36.48 (15.93) 42.93 (12.30) 31.59 (13.39) 40.42 (9.53) 38.77 (9.07) 47.09 (9.98) 37.80 (9.56) 34.10 (7.99) 41.74 (9.90) 38.80 (10.87) 48.39 (11.06) 37.03 (8.18) 32.30 (7.26) 40.03 (8.92) 38.81 (11.24) 39.00 (9.06) 41.29 (13.51) 36.17 (10.33) 31.66 (10.49) 40.07 (11.66) 46.04 (11.17) 34.98 (6.68) 38.61 (13.86) 36.16 (8.31) 24.96 (7.01) 42.76 (11.74) 41.76 (7.74) 47.10 (9.36) 48.77 (12.87) 42.70 (13.59) 45.04 (11.57) 34.89 (10.55) 29.20 (8.73) 41.74 (15.62) 39.26 (12.25) 18-72 17-65 19-70 21-59 24-62 22-58 21-74 19-83 18-79 20-74 18-74 23-65 20-71 20-72 19-62 20-73 23-66 18-88 20-86 21-61 20-50 26-62 19-77 18-70 22-77 20-69 20-58 20-87 18-81 25-51 19-87 22-70 20-56 22-72 27-59 24-67 21-75 20-83 20-78 17-72 18-61 18-83 17-88 within countries and, therefore, we used multilevel modeling (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). To test the first hypothesis about variability in interpersonal distance across cultures, we used a 584 Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 48(4) Figure 1. Graphic of distance shown to participants. stepwise approach. First, we computed three null models for social, personal, and intimate interpersonal distance, respectively (see Supplementary File 1 for details of the models). To test significant differences of interpersonal distance across countries, we used a graphical method developed by Goldstein and Healy (1995), which allows comparing large groups of means simultaneously (see Supplementary File 1 for details of the method). Significant difference is suggested when the confidence intervals of two countries do not overlap. To test our second hypothesis of predicting the variability in interpersonal distance across countries, we computed three models (for social distance, personal distance, and intimate distance) including all predictors discussed in the “Introduction” section in the three multilevel models (see Supplementary File 1 for details of the models). We used SPSS 19 for descriptive statistics. For multilevel modeling, we used the lme4 package (Bates, Maechler, Bolker, & Walker, 2014) in R Version 3.0.2 (R Core Team, 2014). To find the best fitting model, we followed Zuur, Ieno, Walker, Saveliev, and Smith’s (2009) suggestion to compare the inclusion of different random and fixed effects by deviance tests. Results Supplementary Table S1 shows means and standard deviations of each type of interpersonal distance for each sample. Overall, average interpersonal distance differed across various types of distance (social distance, personal distance, intimate distance; Msocial = 135.1 cm; Mpersonal = 91.7 cm; Mintimate = 31.9 cm), supporting prior findings. Variability of Interpersonal Distance Across Countries We hypothesized that people differ in their preferred interpersonal distance across countries. Figure 2 shows the results of the graphical mean comparison across all 42 countries for Sorokowska et al. 585 Figure 2. Mean values (cm) of social, personal, and intimate distance across all nations. Note. Nonoverlap of the confidence intervals between any two countries indicates significant mean differences. Means for interpersonal distance with strangers are rank ordered. interpersonal distance with strangers, acquaintances, and partner (i.e., social distance, personal distance, intimate distance). Inspecting the mean comparisons in Figure 2 shows significant variability in interpersonal distance across countries for different social interactions, supporting Hypothesis 1. In addition, as means for social distance are rank ordered, the order for personal and intimate distances provides insights in distance preferences pattern in relation to distance with strangers. The order for preferred personal distance indicates that the variability of this distance is in similar rank, whereas the social distance in a country is less predictive for the preferred intimate distance. This result is additionally confirmed by the inter-correlations between certain distance types. Pearson’s r correlations showed high correlations of social and personal distance (r = .69) and personal and intimate distance (r = .70); the correlation between social and intimate distance was significant as well (r = .38), but not equally high as in the other cases. Factors Predicting Variability in Interpersonal Distance Across Countries We assumed certain environmental and psychological predictors of interpersonal distance across countries. Results of the three multilevel models are shown in Table 2. We found that the variability of social distance across cultures was predicted by temperature (β1 = −.82; p = .01) and gender (β8 = 3.67; p = .04). The higher the annual temperature of a country, the closer was the preferred distance to strangers. Furthermore, women on average preferred to maintain greater distance with strangers. The result for personal distance show that age (β7 = .08; p = .01) and gender (β8 = 2.65; p = .03) predicted the variability, suggesting that older people preferred greater distance and, again, women preferred greater distance with acquaintances. Finally, the results show that the intimate distance is predicted by age (β7 = .08; p = .02) and temperature (β1 = 1.27; p < .001). This indicates that older people preferred greater 586 Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 48(4) Table 2. Parameter Estimates for Multilevel Model. Preferred interpersonal distance Social distance (stranger) Fixed effects (intercept, slope) Estimate Intercept Slopes Age Gender Ingroup favoritism HDI Nonzoonotic Zoonotic Temperature Population growth SE 135.14 26.96 0.03 3.67 0.26 0.04 1.69 4.20 Personal distance (acquaintance) Intimate distance (close person) t p Estimate SE t p Estimate SE t p 5.0 .000 91.72 21.43 4.28 .000 31.85 24.66 1.29 .205 0.81 2.17 0.06 .418 .037 .952 0.08 2.65 −1.22 0.03 2.55 1.19 2.23 3.33 −0.37 .011 .034 .716 0.08 0.11 −0.84 0.03 2.39 0.82 0.13 3.84 −0.22 .017 .895 .827 .299 −27.96 .669 −0.98 .248 −1.69 .015 0.08 .220 3.73 25.71 −1.09 1.99 −0.45 2.61 −0.64 0.28 0.29 3.30 1.13 .284 .653 .527 .773 .265 0.36 −3.26 0.44 1.27 2.25 29.75 0.01 2.25 −1.45 2.99 0.15 0.29 4.37 3.80 0.59 .999 .156 .884 .000 .558 −34.13 32.37 −1.05 1.07 2.48 0.43 −3.86 3.28 −1.18 −0.82 0.33 −2.46 5.18 4.15 1.25 Note. Significant estimates are in bold (p values are two-tailed). N = 8,943. HDI = Human Development Index. physical distance to people they considered close, whereas the effect of temperature was reversed in comparison with interpersonal distance with strangers—the higher the annual temperature of a country, the greater was the preferred personal distance to a close person. Figure 3 illustrates the three types of preferred distances with regard to participants’ gender and age. Discussion Owing to the quality and quantity of the data collected so far on the topic of cultural differences in proxemic behaviors, it was necessary and desirable to update the questionnaires and variables measured to erase the bias observed in previous studies. We present here an analysis of interpersonal distance preferences over a large data set (8,943 participants from 42 countries). As hypothesized, we observed significant variability in social, personal, and intimate distances across countries. Variability in preferred social distance was predicted by participants’ gender and county’s average temperature, indicating that women and people in colder countries prefer greater distance toward strangers. Furthermore, the variability of preferred personal distance was predicted by participants’ age and gender; older people and women prefer greater distance to an acquaintance. Finally, variability of intimate distance was explained by age and temperature, indicating that older people and people in warmer countries prefer greater distance with people they consider close. Compared with previous studies, the present design had six distinctive features: (a) our study involved a large-scale analysis among thousands of people; (b) all the participants answered the same questionnaire illustrated with graphic representation of interpersonal distance; (c) all the participants took part in the study in the same year (2013); (d) samples of populations were heterogeneous in terms of age, sex, and professions; (e) we considered five different regions of the world, also Africa, which was not included from previous analyses; and (f) we examined several environmental and sociopsychological variables that possibly could explain the variability in social distance. We also present up-to-date values of three categories of preferred interpersonal distances in different regions, which might be used as a reference data point in future studies. This data set is especially important given that cross-cultural comparison studies are becoming more popular in social sciences. Sorokowska et al. 587 Figure 3. Mean values (cm) of social (gray), personal (light gray), and intimate distance (dark gray) for men and women in different age groups summed for all nations. Cultural Differences in Proxemic Behaviors Among environmental factors, our results regarding temperature are consistent with findings showing that climatic demands interact with wealth resources in influencing a variety of cultural tendencies (Fischer & Van de Vliert, 2011; Van de Vliert, 2013; Van de Vliert, Schwartz, Huismans, Hofstede, & Daan, 1999). However, we observed a meaningful association between distance preferences and mean temperature, without distinguishing between demanding winter cold and demanding summer heat. Thus, our results and previous research (Van de Vliert et al., 1999) suggest that the unipolar, mean temperature might be a reasonable predictor of some psychological variables that could be used instead, or in addition to the climatic demand variable (Fischer & Van de Vliert, 2011; Van de Vliert, 2013), depending on the hypotheses and study aims. It is worth noticing that in our study, the direction of temperature effect differed for social and intimate distance. In warmer countries, people preferred to maintain closer distances toward strangers—but farther toward the intimate partners. The result regarding closer distance in hotter climates is consistent with the literature. IJzerman and Semin (2010) showed that compared with colder conditions, warmer conditions induced greater social proximity; even within the United States, people in warm latitudes were shown to exhibit a closer contact behavior with more touch than their counterparts in colder climates (Andersen, 1988). IJzerman and Semin (2010) explained their findings in the context of Lakoff and Johnson’s (1999) embodied realism, that is, grounding the abstract idea (in this case—warmer feelings) in the physical situation (warmer temperature). Relatedly, other studies showed that social exclusion induces perceptions of lower temperature (Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008), and physical proximity of other people induce perceptions of higher temperature (IJzerman & Semin, 2010). However, in the case of intimate distance, the result of our study differed from those obtained previously. Perhaps, this outcome resulted from specificity of distancing preferences in colder 588 Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 48(4) (and not in hotter) countries. Although both heat and cold are demanding environmental conditions (Fischer & Van de Vliert, 2011), it is possible that some negative effects of colder climate can be alleviated through closer intimate distances. Another explanation could be that although the increased temperatures might directly lead to smaller social distances, augmented parasite prevalence in hotter climates might also indirectly affect distance preferences in close relationships by increased risk of certain infections. Overall, we found no direct effect of cultural-level parasitic stress (zoonotic and nonzoonotic parasite stress; Fincher & Thornhill, 2012), which seems particularly interesting, given that evolved disease-avoidance mechanisms and contemporary social cognition are indeed related (Faulkner, Schaller, Park, & Duncan, 2004). Therefore, perhaps other health-related variables would provide a better fit to our model, for example, prevalence of different infectious diseases. Also, the parasitic threat could play a more important role in real dyad behavior while being unrelated to preferences. Finally, as discussed above, it is probable that parasitic diseases would be good predictors of interpersonal distances as long as the strong, direct impact of temperatures was excluded. This hypothesis is consistent with previous research, showing that interactive impacts of climatic demands and income resources alleviate any effects parasitic stress might have on culture (Van de Vliert & Postmes, 2012). In the group of sociopsychological factors, significant fixed effects revealed gender differences in preferred social and personal distance, with women generally preferring greater distances. However, the random effects showed in more detail that gender effect was especially pronounced in Switzerland, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Austria, and India for social distance, and Switzerland, Malaysia, China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Poland, and Nigeria for personal distance. As our study is a preliminary exploration of possible, cross-cultural determinants of preferred distances, it is hard to present any definite explanations of such findings. Generally, enforcing closer proximinity during dyad interactions conveys higher dominance (Burgoon, 1991). Dominance is typically related to male psychological characteristics, and behaviors consistent with such stereotype might be especially strong in some cultures. In addition, women in some cultures can be more sensitive to social situations and avoid dominant “invasions” of personal space of people they are not highly familiar with. This explanation would be consistent with the notion that the interpersonal distance people choose depends also on the degree of understanding of a social situation, that is, familiarity with social norms (Bogardus, 1954). Also, our findings might be partially due to the methodology used in our study—we did not specify the sex of an approaching individual, and it is possible that interaction distances might differ depending on the assumed sex of interlocutor. Still, it needs to be remembered that higher distances preferred by women are inconsistent with most previous studies (Aiello, 1987; Horenstein & Downey, 2003; Ozdemir, 2008; Patterson & Edinger, 1987; Smith, 1981; Vranic, 2003), suggesting that women rather prefer closer interpersonal distances than men (but see Heshka & Nelson, 1972). There are some possible reasons as to why these differences emerged. First, many of the previous studies were conducted many years ago, and maybe the social norms related to dyadic interactions in these times were different than they are now. Furthermore, the differences may reflect the marked increase in globalization and increased internationalization over the last several decades. Finally, it is also unclear whether most previous findings refer to distances between strangers, acquaintances, or close persons (e.g., Gérin-Lajoie et al., 2006; Ozdemir, 2008; Smith, 1981; Webb & Weber, 2003). Perhaps the observed discrepancies result from a simple fact that in our study, the specified context influenced the declarations of participating men and women. We also observed that age was a significant predictor of personal and intimate distance. As discussed in the introduction, our findings are consistent with previously observed outcomes (Aiello, 1987; Burgess, 1983; Gérin-Lajoie et al., 2006; Rapp & Gutzmann, 2000; Webb & Weber, 2003). Overall, younger people are more likely to engage in physical contact with others Sorokowska et al. 589 (Rands & Levinger, 1979). Possibly, this result could be explained with changes in social norms across generations. Limitations and Future Directions Although the distinction proposed in our study provides a novel alternative for previous, geographic division on contact versus noncontact cultures, and the presented data might stimulate new research on proxemic behaviors, there exist some limitations of our findings. First, perhaps, other variables, not analyzed in the current study, could also explain the interpersonal distance preferences. To create better and more exact models, future studies should include more predicting variables of various categories, including different individual-level variables, for example, height of interacting individuals, or their disease susceptibility. Second, we concentrated on preferences for interpersonal distance and not on real choices. These two might be different, as shown, for example, by studies regarding mate preferences and mate choices (Sorokowski, Sabiniewicz, & Sorokowska, 2015; Todd, Penke, Fasolo, & Lenton, 2007). However, some of our findings are consistent with results of experimental studies regarding real dyadic interactions (Borisova & Butovskaya, 2004). Nevertheless, further studies should experimentally test the findings of our research. Third, in our study, we measured distance preferences across three predefined categories of interpersonal distance (stranger, acquaintance, and a close person). It needs to be mentioned that descriptors of these categories (“a close relationship”) could evoke some spatial associations (“close distance”). Also, simultaneous assessment of three types of distance could result in responses being slightly interdependent. Researchers in future works could control this factor by separating answer sheets for distance categories by some unrelated tasks, or by using a betweensubject design, with each participant in each country assessing his or her preferences for one type of distance only. Finally and ideally, in future studies, it could be tested how reliably the sample like ours represents the interpersonal distancing phenomena on a global level. Such an approach would allow researchers to be more precise in estimating generalizability of the findings. Still, in the case of our research, the participating sample represents many nations and the observed findings should be a close proxy of global preferences for interpersonal distances. Acknowledgments The authors thank Chinwe Frances Inogbo, Regina Cejudo de la Sierra, Maria Fernanda Morales Perez, Barbara Baranyai, Adrienn Bálint, Gabriella Kuch, Tímea Kiss, Emese Kozma, Margaréta Nagy, Zsófia Magyar, and Éva Virág for their help with data collection; they also thank Professors Corey L. Fincher and Randy Thornhill for kindly permitting them to use their data on parasite stress. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Czech Science Foundation GAČR P407/16/03899S grant to Jitka Fialová, Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education: Iuventus Plus grant #IP2014 043773 and Scholarship to Agnieszka Sorokowska for years 2013-2016, Scholarships to Piotr Sorokowski for years 2012-2017, Polish National Science Centre ETIUDA scholarship #2013/08/T/HS6/00408 to Agnieszka Sorokowska, Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University Support to Ahmad M. 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