Managing Negative Interactions in Space Crews: The Role of Simulator Researchto peak at the midpoint and shortly before the end of a stay.^7 If that were the case
it, would be important information for flight managers and participants to know in
understanding and managing spaceflight events.
Here was an illustration of using a simulator as a laboratory to subject anecdotal
analog information to experimental testing to establish more reliably the anec-
dotal information. The researchers in the ESA study in fact found that the anec-
dotal information was true and held, independent of the duration (30 or 60 days).
The Delta Clipper team was interested in much shorter timespans than those
with which the long-duration studies had dealt. They wanted to know if this same
phenomenon held for short periods, too, such as the two-day simulation we were
conducting for them. We designed our study to test whether the negative interac-
tions in our groups peaked at the midpoints and just before the ends of the simu-
lated flights. We found that our short-duration experimental study corroborated the
findings of both the long-duration experimental studies and the anecdotal studies.
We then had two experimental studies that confirmed the anecdotal findings
that negative interpersonal interactions peak at the middle and near the ends of
group activities in which the durations of the events are known to the participants.
What is more, the finding was independent of the durations involved. It held for
short periods, as found in the study reported here, and longer periods, as reported
in the ESA study. This information was useful beyond the realm of spaceflight and
probably generalizes to all social epochs such as family vacations and school semes-
ters, even if the participants are not confined.
Both of these studies reported that the great preponderance of interpersonal
interactions was neutral and that positive interactions were much more frequent
than negative ones. Both studies reported that people got along quite well in sim-
ulations of differing durations, with more formal and less formal social structure,
and in private as well as government settings. The results of the study in my labo-
ratory should be good news for the neophyte space tourism industry. It showed not
only that relatively unselected, minimally trained civilians can tolerate the extreme
environment of a spaceflight simulator, but also that they find the experience pro-
- A. A. Harrison and Y. A. Clearwater, eds., From Antarctica to Outer Space: Life in Isolation
and Confinement (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1991).