Anxious People Need Larger Personal Spaces

Anxious people tend to have larger personal spaces, according to a new study.

The peripersonal space or the space surrounding a person's body can be an indicator of a person's anxiety. Researchers at the University College London have found that most of us have a personal space of 20-30 centimeters (about 7- 11 inches) in which we feel  most-comfortable. They also found that anxious people are more likely to have a larger personal space.

In the study, researchers used the blink reflex to measure a person's personal space. A blink response is the involuntary blinking of the eye in response to a foreign object near the face or very bright light. The study included 15 people aged between 20 and 37. Researchers applied electrical impulse to a specific nerve in the hand, which resulted in involuntary blinking- a phenomenon known as hand-blink reflex (HBR).

Researchers then looked at the intensity with which participants reacted to the stimulus ( their own hands). The team then compared data from the HBR study with another test that measured participants' anxiety levels.

The study showed that people with higher scores on the anxiety tests reacted strongly to stimulus that were about 20 cm from the face when compared to people with low anxiety levels. People who reacted strongly to stimulus that was farther from the face were classified as having a large "defensive peripersonal space'' (DPPS).

Larger DPPS means that the person tends to believe that a threat is closer than it seems.

"This finding is the first objective measure of the size of the area surrounding the face that each individual considers at high-risk, and thus wants to protect through the most effective defensive motor responses," Dr Giandomenico Iannetti UCL Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology), lead author of the study, said in  a news release.

The study is published in The Journal of Neuroscience.