The boundaries of personal space vary widely from person to person, between cultures, and between environments. In 2020, Covid brought a whole new element to the table in terms of our comfort levels around other people. Maintaining a physical distance was one of the few things we could do for many months to limit the risk of infection. The personal space boundaries we were used to suddenly became no-gos.

This change is very well illustrated by a new preprint from Daphne Halt and team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The researchers believe that our personal space preferences not only tell us about the psychological effects of the pandemic, but may be of use as an indicator of progress towards regaining normality.

The authors say that the increase in people’s boundaries even in virtual reality, where there was no infection risk, may be indicative of changes to neural representations of the “safety zone” around our bodies, as well as sensorimotor circuits in the brain involved in maintaining our safety.

There’s also a possibility that this increase may persist beyond the pandemic; but, it’s just as possible that our need for more space will revert to pre-pandemic levels once the pandemic is over. The scale at which social distance measures were applied is unprecedented, and as such, it’s difficult to make predictions about what future average personal space boundaries may look like.