Territorial Influences on the Permeability of Group Spatial Boundaries

One hundred eighty-six female undergraduates in an American college encountered an interacting female dyad in a corridor that was in a dormitory (secondary territory) or in a classroom building (public territory). For half of these dyads, obstacles blocked part of the corridor, and for the other half the corridor was open. As predicted, significantly more pedestrians penetrated group space in a secondary territory (although the difference in penetration between the two types of territories was reduced when there were no obstacles), indicating that the pedestrians had differential feelings of control and ownership in the two types of territories.