Cultural Variations in Personal Space

Summary

This investigation was designed to study the effects of cultural background on personal space. Forty-five male students, 16–17 years old, who had been in Israel approximately a year, comprised three background-nationality groups: Argentinian, Iraqi, and Russian. The personal space tasks required them to arrange silhouettes in interacting situations between a self-referrent figure and four other figures representing: (a) a good friend, (b) an Israeli, (c) a person with the same national background, and (d) a stranger. The results indicated that there were basic differences in personal space contingent upon culture, that the smallest distance was displayed toward a friend and the largest toward a stranger, and that cultural and situational variables interacted significantly, since certain cultures, as opposed to others, did not reveal a large space range across situations. It was also found that a relatively small personal space was displayed toward desired (Israeli) and background (native) cultural figures.