Comfort Distance for Online and In‐Person Interactions: A Virtual Reality Study

Abstract Previous research has shown that people have a preferred distance during their in‐person interactions. However, it is less clear what the appropriate distance is for online interactions. The present study aimed to extend previous research by exploring whether comfort distance is different between dyadic interactions when taking place in a virtual online context compared with a virtual in‐person context. The study involved 44 undergraduate students who participated in a virtual reality (VR) experiment, consisting of two conditions (an online and an in‐person dyadic interaction). The participants were asked to adjust the distance between themselves and a virtual confederate displayed on a television screen (virtual online condition) and a virtual confederate displayed in‐person (virtual in‐person condition). The results showed that individuals select a larger distance from avatars for online interactions than for in‐person interactions, prefer more distance between themselves and the screen than the distance between avatars and the screen, and opt for greater distance from male than from female confederates. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the dynamics of online social interactions and highlight the importance of context and perspective when studying proxemics.