Effects of Stress on Interpersonal Distance in a Simulated Interview Situation

Summary Seating distance in a simulated interview situation was examined in 30 Nigerian secondary-school boys and girls who were either mildly stressed or nonstressed about an anticipated interaction with an interviewer. In an empty room with only a seated interviewer and a chair for the interviewee each S chose a free seating position. The distance from the tip of the S's chair to the interviewer's prior to the first question of the interview served as a measure of spatial distance. The data indicate that stress affected S's tendency to approach in a face-to-face interaction situation. The Ss in the mild stress condition distanced themselves farther away from the interviewer than the no-stress Ss. It was concluded that the data provided a cross-cultural support for results obtained in spatial proximity research in the West.