Empirical evidence indicates that intrusions into an individual's personal space may produce anxiety and defensive or avoidance behaviors which might be reduced when conversation occurs between interactants. This paper briefly presents two field experiments designed to investigate this possibility. The first study hypothesized that invasion of…

Included in a current genre of studies on dyadic interaction (i.e., communication involving only two people), the study reported herein focuses on dyadic verbal, nonverbal, and proxemic behaviors and their meanings. The study is inductive in nature and is, by intent, descriptive and analytic rather than predictive. The subjects for the study were…

The study investigated interpersonal space among black and white Midwesterners as perceived through photographs. The stimuli consisted of four sets of photographs showing teacher-student dyads in spacings ranging from 12 to 84 inches. There were four models: white teacher (W), white student (w), black teacher (B), and black student (b). The photos…