Body language: interpersonal distance

I've been asked to blog a bit more about proxemics. I mentioned before that the interpersonal distance we keep from other people depends on factors such as gender, culture, and personality.

But how much distance we keep from others also depends on how comfortable we feel with the situation and the people around us.

More than once, I found myself in the following situation at work: For group sessions, I arranged the chairs in a circle. At the far back of the room, two rows of chairs were still standing from an earlier presentation.

Now my clients entered the room for their first court-mandated session. As you can imagine, they didn't want to be there and wanted nothing to do with a psychologist.

Care to guess which seat the first person to enter chose?

You probably guessed it. In some groups, there'll be someone who tries to sit in the very last row at the back of the room, as far away from me as possible. Keep in mind that this happens in the very first session, when I didn't have a chance to work with them yet

Beware of misinterpretations, though. As with all body language, interpersonal distance can be interpreted only in context. I once had a client who insisted on always sitting very close to me during group sessions. It wasn't because he liked me so much — he was hard of hearing and wanted to make sure he didn't miss a thing I said.

Filed under: body language Tagged: interpersonal distance, proxemics