Friendship and Freedom of Movement as Moderators of Sex Differences in Interpersonal Distancing

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Abstract
American undergraduates (96 males, 96 females) interacted face-to-face with a same-sex or opposite-sex target person who was either a friend or a stranger. Half the subjects were free to move and approach the target person, stopping at the point where approaching “any closer would be uncomfortable.” The other half were stationary and were approached by the target person, who was asked to stop at a similar uncomfortable point. As expected, friends maintained closer distances than strangers. Moreover, both sexes kept closer distances with males when subjects were free to move than when stationary, but freedom of movement made no difference when the target was female. Though not statistically reliable, our experiments showed that male-male dyads generally maintained greater distances than female-female dyads, with male-female dyads closest among friends. The results suggest that freedom of movement and friendship were important moderators of gender differences in interpersonal distancing.

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