Why do different cultures develop different notions of personal space?

Because of our differences in amount of land. Canada only has 3.5 people per square kilometer, whereas in small countries with massive populations, they have to get used to living in dense areas. Naw’m’sayin’

I don’t think it is population. India is one of the most populous countries but they have a very strict sense of personal space. You don’t shake hands, you bow and say Namaste.

At first I wanted to say it was something like ego-space until I thought of India. Here in the America it seems like the personal space is desired as a result of a large ego or a person who is not quite comfortable with themselves.

In India, it is more of a respect for the space of others (sometimes needlessly). Kind of like a reverse ego-space.

So I guess my answer is, I’m not really sure. lol, hope that helped.

I don’t have a good answer for you, but a comment: I really wish that Americans would shrink their personal space bubbles a little. Have you ever noticed someone walking toward you on a sidewalk will try to walk on the opposite side? Or when someone brushes you even slightly they will ejaculate “sorry” at you?

Now that’s a mental image that will haunt me any time I accidentally brush against someone.

You and me both, laureth. You and me both. :’(

i had just about blocked it out when you had to go and mention it again, sheesh

@Vinifera7 Just out of curiousity, why does that bother you?
I was going to say something similar to ark_a_dong, but India does kind of throw that out the window. My own personal space needs vary. In a crowd of people, I need more space than I need while cuddling with my kids on the couch. When I get overwhelmed by too much visual or aural stimulation, I need more space, even from my kids and husband.

@augustlan
I never meant to imply that it bothers me severely. I was mostly just commenting on observations.

However, my wording was intended to give an uncomfortable image. For me, it’s slightly uncomfortable to have people say “I’m sorry” when they bump me. Apparently other people like it. I’m just a little off, I guess.

@Vinifera7 Aren’t we all :)

I have to sort of agree with vinifera7, Americans seem to intentionally disenfranchise themselves from one another. It is kind of annoying, I dunno how many times ive been at crowded cafe’s with no seating and noticed a person sitting at a table by themselves, and people looking for somewhere to eat and both refuse to ask or invite the other to sit with them to eat. I always enjoy meeting new people even if for 10 minutes. But anyways, I think it is the american sense of independence and over sensitivity to “creeps” that keeps our distance from eachother, like, oh I don’t need to sit with anyone, or I don’t want to walk near anyone, thats creepy and what if we make eye contact do i say something i dunno. I think in other cultures people are much more comfortable with strangers for who knows why. Exspecially in france atleast from what my friend tells me, people are much more likely to interact with strangers. The interesting question is, do our living situations and what not influence our culture and how we behave with eachother, or does the way we behave with eachother influence everything else. For example Americans obsessions with the suburbs as opposed to europes centralization around large cities.
Is it because of our obsession with the suburbs that we are so guarded about our personal space, or is it that we guard our personal space so much we are obsessed with the suburbs

Ah! There’s another thing that ticks me off about Americans, although it’s less about personal space and more about what LKidKyle1985 said: that “Americans seem to intentionally disenfranchise themselves from one another.”

Doesn’t it irritate you when someone greets you by saying “How are you?” and then doesn’t pay any attention to your answer? Or they say “How are you?”, so you answer and also ask about their wellbeing, only to be completely ignored? It’s like “wtf? I just asked how you are doing? Answer please!”

I’ve always thought that “personal space” isn’t how much people are willing to make physical contact with each other, but rather the unseen “bubble” of space that people keep between each other when interacting with others. If you are standing facing someone and they are standing just on the edge of your personal bubble, you will tend to feel comfortable with that – in fact, it will probably seem so normal, you won’t think anything of it. If they are standing well outside your bubble for no apparent reason, you will likely feel that they are cold and distant. If they stand too close within your bubble, you will feel they are crowding you. It is fairly well documented that the size of this “bubble” varies greatly from country to country, and I do still believe that it has a great amount to do with the space available within that country.

A friend of mine taught in South Korea, and she said that she constantly felt crowded there. People are packed in like sardines in the larger cities (or so it seems to a rural Canadian), no-one has any space or real privacy there, with multiple generations all crowded together in a single house together, and they even have “love motels” for couples to go to for a few hours of privacy out of mom and grandma’s earshot. It’s common for a son to move his new wife into the house with his mother, grandmother(s) and sister(s). They have a very small personal space bubble, but the same time, they are very reticent about showing emotion or physical contact in public. As mentioned by ark_a_dong above, Canadians have very large bubbles of personal space. At the same time, there are a lot of Canadians that regularly greet each other with hugs, but if you simply stand six inches from them for no apparent reason, they’ll feel you’re being pushy. I still believe that peoples’ comfort with physical contact is more of a cultural thing, and the personal space variance springs from demographics.

Actually wikipedia has a rather interesting little article about personal space.

@Vinifera7: That’s not an ‘American’ behavior. That happens all over the world, people are inconsiderate everywhere.

I don’t travel, but what I said was the impression of several foreign professors that I’ve spoken with. I simply didn’t want to over-generalize.

@ark_a_dong is right about a lot of it, however, there are also other factors. Many Eastern European countries have much less personal space between each person as a result of when they were a communist nation that denied individuality and thus denied a need for personal space. However, many Americans that have spent lots of time in those countries have acclimated to it and now enjoy that closeness.