Space Invaders — Territories and Personal Spaceterritorial rules state that a restaurant table is divided equally
down the middle and the staff carefully place the salt, pepper,
sugar, flowers and other accessories equally on the centre line.
As the meal progresses, subtly move the salt cellar across to the
other person's side, then the pepper, flowers and so on. Before
long this subtle territorial invasion will cause a reaction in
your lunch-mate. They either sit back to regain their space or
start pushing everything back to the centre.
Cultural Factors Affecting Zone Distances
A young Italian couple migrated from Italy to live in Sydney,
Australia and were invited to join a local social club. Several
weeks after joining, three female members complained that
the Italian man was making sexual advances towards them and
that they felt uncomfortable around him. The male members
of the club felt that the Italian woman had also been behaving
as if she could be sexually available.
This situation illustrates the complications that can happen
when cultures with different space needs come together. Many
Southern Europeans have an intimate distance of only 8 to 11
inches (20—30cm) and in some places it's even less. The Italian
couple felt at ease and relaxed when standing at a distance of
10 inches (25cm) from the Australians but were totally
unaware of their intrusion into the Australians' 46-centimetre
Intimate Zone. Italian people also use more eye contact and
touch than Australians, which gave rise to further misjudge-
ments about their motives. The Italians were shocked when
this was pointed out to them but they resolved to practise
standing back at a more culturally accepted distance.
Moving into the Intimate Zone of the opposite sex is a way
of showing interest in that person and is commonly called an
advance'. If the advance into the Intimate Zone is rejected, the
other person will step backwards to reclaim their space. If the
advance is accepted, the other person holds his ground and
allows the intruder to remain. To measure a man's level of