- In normal conversation, vary the amount of space between you and your partner, either moving gradually away or moving gradually closer. How does your partner respond?
In this experiment, I actually used my best friend Jasmine. She and I have known each other for 7 years, so I thought she would respond the best with this experiment.
When I went to visit her last week, we decided we would go to Walmart and get an oil change done on her car. When we were waiting to pick it up, we got talking on our favorite Harry Potter books. At first, I started to move further away, taking small steps at a time, each of them roughly thirty seconds apart. At first she didn't notice, but as I got further away, she followed me and kind of smiled.
"What, do I stink?" was her response. I laughed as if it were a joke and we dropped it. I didn't want to reveal it was an experiment.
Later that day, we were talking about our homework assignment in our General A&P class. I slowly began stepping closer and closer to her, all the while acting like nothing was going on. She instinctively backed up, and at first she didn't even notice. But as I kept getting closer, she shoved me gently and exclaimed, "Would you get outta here?!"
It is easy to see that my body language and positioning was a big factor in how she was feeling, and her personal space is very important to her. I found it rather entertaining how a little distance change could effect someone as much as it did.
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