As I was riding up the elevator this morning in our office building, I noticed that the number of people that were willing to pack into the elevator was such that everyone still had enough personal space. For the most part people weren’t shoved into each other and weren’t physically touching, other than brushing up against each other as the elevator stopped and people got on or off.
If have found this consistent where ever I go in the US or throughout Europe and even in Latin America.
However, I have noticed that this is not the case when I travel throughout Asia, most notably in China, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore. There, people fully load into the elevators where you are physically pressed against people on all sides of you, as people are coming to work.
If you watch western movies though, one would assume that this is the norm in the US as well. Movies portray elevators in office buildings as being jam-packed. But in reality, as I said before, that is not true norm.
So do Asians pack the elevators because they truly are comfortable giving up their personal space, or do they do it because they see western movies that exhibit this as a global norm, much like the way many Asian’s have adopted western holidays (Valentine’s day, Christmas, etc.) because of perceived western cultural influence?
Preferred personal space is most certainly cultural. I find the difference clear even within Europe between, say. the Uk (maximum personal space required) and Italy (not so much).
We actually had a lesson on this in school (general studies classes were weird like that. We did French wine classification in another). The teacher laid out a row of seats and asked us to pretend they were seats on a bus. He then asked one person to sit, and then asked another where they would sit. We all chose to sit as far away from the other person as possible.
He then went on the explain how different cultures have different ideas about personal space. So (and I’m pulling this from my distant memory banks now, so excuse me if I get the nationalities wrong)…
> The Brit will sit at the opposite end of the bus from the other passenger
> The (maybe) Italian would sit near, but not right next to, the other passenger, in order to show the original passenger that they didn’t smell or anything, whilst
> The (I think) Saudi Arabian passenger would sit right next to the original passenger, as a sign of unspoken goodwill/friendship.
At an international ‘personal space’ conference, I’ve always assumed that Brits and Americans would be the extremists on this subject, and be considered quite rude.
This often leads to misunderstandings. The Italians believe the Brits to be cold and (literally) standoffish; the Brits believe the Italians to be pushy and rude.
I did some work with international consultants, and the guy from Italy and a guy from Belgium were seriously close talkers…I’m talking almost zero personal space. I was never sure if it was cultural or not, but the Italian was about 6-3, and even though I’m a little over 6 feet it made it feel like he was looming over me. Man I hated that.
Maserschmidt, I’ve noticed that too. Europeans (from what country I don’t know) will sometimes approach me to ask for directions. They often get so close that I wonder if they’re trying to kiss me. It’s very uncomfortable. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that from an American.