Breaching Experiment: Personal Space

This article discusses a breaching experiment conducted to explore the concept of personal space and societal norms. The experiment involved intentionally invading the personal space of strangers in a public setting. The reactions and consequences of the experiment are analyzed, highlighting the importance of personal space and adherence to societal norms.

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Breaching Experiment: Personal Space
Description
In every society, there exist some expectations on how personal space should be given to
people we interact with in our daily activities. In every society, personal space is valued, the
personal space that should be given to someone mainly depend on the degree or the closeness of
their relationship. For instance, in a public setting like eating establishments and restaurants
people who sit together in a table are often comfortable and familiar with each other hence
having close proximity to each other. The people who sit together possibly are either friends,
family members or people who are enthusiastic to know each other. It is very hard for a person
to sit voluntarily near someone who is a stranger. The act of providing a personal space was so
captivating to me; hence I decided to do research on the importance of personal space
(Brinkmann and Svend 520-533). In order to carry out my research, I decided to break this social
normative in a public restaurant in Toronto.
I carried out the research when I was at The St. George Campus of the University of
Toronto at the Chestnut Dining Hall where many of the students have their meals throughout the
day. The normative of the cafeteria was that people sat near other people that they were familiar

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with and hence they were ready to open their personal space to them. But in case someone did
not find anyone he/she was familiar with, then he/she would prefer sitting by herself/himself. I
decided to break this norm by intentionally sitting around people who did not recognize me. I
experimented with a young female student and a man in his early fifties. The young female was
an African-American who had her headphones on and sat by herself. I finally dropped my plate
of the meal on the table and sat facing at her side, on noticing my action she looked and I could
tell by her facial expression that she seemed to be surprised at what I did. Judging from her facial
expression, I recognized that she was very shocked at my action and probably wondered how a
stranger could sit next to her. I continued to talk to her and asked her how her day was, at first
she hesitated to answer, but finally she replied and answered that it was fine and continued to eat
her meal and look down.
During the evening I also went and sat around a man who was sitting around with his five
colleagues who seemed of similar age, I went and sat beside the man who was an American
when they were having their meal. I sat at close proximity with the man, and I could tell from
looks of the other colleagues that they were shocked at my behavior. The man with a lot of
shocks looked at me directly into my eyes and said, “Do you mind giving me my personal
space?” and I hesitated but I finally replied “sure!” and then stood up as the man was watching
me and he replied and said, “thank you.” I went and sat on another table and had my meal
(Felipe et al 458-468).
Analysis
In almost every society people abide by the culture and many unwritten rules that govern
how people interrelate and interact with each other. Culture involves the social behavior, ideas,

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and customs of a particular society or people. For instance, according to American ‘s the act of
respecting the other people personal space is a social normative while in Chinese it is acceptable
to break a personal space or they don’t care about respecting other people personal space. The
unwritten rules usually involve the behaviors, folkway and culture that society upholds and are
usually understood but not specifically recorded (Mondada and Lorenza 1-5). One should
specifically keep a standard distance when in public or even when around friends with respect to
the other people. Almost every person dislike when his/her personal space is invaded, and hence
every person reacts in his/ her way depending on the approach used in invasion and person’s
preference (Taylor et al).
When conducting the destruction experiment, I had a feeling that I was violating the
social norm of other people. I felt skeptical and awkward and had a lot of thoughts on how other
people could react to my behavior. I sometimes felt that invading other personal space especially
a stranger in a public place was so rude. Even thou I did not receive any sanction for my actions,
I felt like apologizing to the man I invaded his personal space with his friends (Reinharz and
Shulamit). We are all expected by society to carry ourselves and act in a definite way by
observing the societal norms. Violating people’s space mostly indicates something unwanted or
negative. The fact that norms help in exercising social control by aiding people to avoid
unnecessary conflict and also help in teaching people consideration, hence violating norms is
something unwanted (Turowetz et al 387-410.).
Understanding the concept of personal space is vital since it helps in giving people a
sense of security because nobody will easily violate it. I felt so uncomfortable while invading
the personal space of people especially the stranger and since it was in a public setting. A society
without rules would be characterized by a lot of chaos and destructive actions hence not able to

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function properly. People may cause a lot of harm to others if they continuously deviate from the
society rules (Von Sivers, Isabella, and Gerta Köster 104-117). Some of the importance of rules
in society include; they have a tendency to protect the weak since they are more likely to be
disadvantaged if rules are broken, they help in maintaining order in society and also rules help in
the provision of a stable human coexistent and environment hence leading to development and
peace. Some rules in society come alongside with punishment in order for people to adhere to
them hence because of fear punishment many people tend to obey the rules (Pillay and Rona
269-283).
Discussion
When conducting the breaching experiment, I experienced a lot of difficulties. The task
of intruding into someone personal space is accompanied by a high degree of negative emotion.
The negative emotions that I experienced were due to the fact that I was not used to such kind of
actions, the ordinarily of some actions help individuals to avoid breaking some social norms.
The restraints from internal factors like fear, anxious and tension help against interfering with
personal space of others hence play a vital role in ensuring the integrity of the other people
personal space (Rafalovich and Adam 156-163)
A person of another class, gender or class would also have the same experience of
experiencing some difficulty while intruding other people personal space. This is because in a
society where people do not easily invade with other people personal space at first when doing so
everybody will feel anxious, tensed and embarrassed when carrying out the experiment.
Violation of personal spaces can have a lot of destructive consequences (Nilsson et al, par
1903.01831). Violation of expectations of personal space cause arousal and can force the

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recipient of the violation to start a number of cognitive and physical arousal against the violation.
The cognitive and physical arousal cause distractions to the social order since some can even
respond by fighting or shouting to the distractor (Szpak et al 45-54). The breaching experiment
distracts the social order because it involves the destruction of societal norms and rules that help
in shaping the social order.
At some instances, some people cannot respond when their personal space is intruded.
Some factors that can lead to no outcome when there is an invasion of a personal space include;
when the intruder and the recipient know each other well and hence even interfering with each
other personal space will not be a big deal and when the interfering with the personal space of
the opposite gender. For instance, when a male interfere with the personal space of a female, the
female may just assume that the male counterpart may be interested in her. Some other factors
that determine a comfortable personal space include; female to female, male to male,
professional relationship, culture and country, and platonic versus romantic relationship (Stanley
et al). The breaching experiment on personal space invasion help in shedding light on what the
society expects from us and also helps us know how to conform to the society normative. The
responses of the recipient when conducting this experiment help in showcasing the intensity or
importance of social norm. When conducting the experiment the female was not comfortable and
was more pressured to respond rudely and the man felt not comfortable, and he requested me to
stop interfering with his personal space. The discomfort and pressure to respond demonstrate
how we greatly depend on social norms. Breaching experiments are essential since they help in
exploring and uncovering the several unwritten social rules that we live by (Corti et al 288-308).

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