Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, it's Christian Seger here. If you like to stand close to folks when you talk to them, you'll love Argentina. The South American country is filled with close talkers, people who stand two point five feet or point seven six meters away from strangers when they're chatting. But if you prefer more personal space, make your way to Romania instead. Their residents like to stand a spacious four point five
feet or one point four meters away from strangers. This info on personal bubbles comes from a study of preferred interpersonal distances recently published in the Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology. While this issue of personal space in different countries has been examined before, the authors of this study used a much larger data set than was used in previous studies,
nearly nine thousand people living in forty two countries. Participants were shown a picture with two figures representing two people and a line with some distances marked off in between them. The subjects were asked how close should the two figures stand together if they are strangers versus close friends, versus colleagues or acquaintances. The subjects were to assume they were
one of the two figures. The scientists found that residents of Argentina, Peru, and Bulgaria stand the closest to strangers, while those from Romania, Hungary, and Saudi Arabia want the most space. Americans were somewhere in the middle. The researchers also studied the personal bubbles we draw between ourselves and family and friends. We're all fine with our family and friends standing closer to us than strangers, no surprise there, and our general bubble size with our friends stays consistent.
That is, if we like more personal space, will keep our friends farther away than those who are fine with less personal space. But intriguingly, things change when it comes to close friends or loved ones. The Romanians, who like a lot of personal space between themselves and both strangers and colleagues, like their intimate relations to be fairly close to them about one point five feet or point four
five meters. That is closer than almost any other group studied in the Norwegians, whose preference for stranger distance is somewhere in the middle of the forty two countries studied, want their close friends to be closer to them than any other group about one point three feet or point four meters. Scientists say it appears temperature has something to
do with personal space. Those living in colder climates often prefer to be quite near to their friends, perhaps as a way to stay warm, and those residing in warm climates often stand closer to strangers. At least one past study showed when it's warm, people move in closer to one another. Today's episode was written by Melanie rad Zeke McManus and produced by Dylan Fagan. For more on this and other topics, please visit us at how stuff works dot com.