Keeping your distance: the relationship between the size of psychological distance and sport type

Eliza Weronika Szczerbak , Dariusz Parzelski , Artur Poczwardowski

Abstract

Psychological distance (PD) measures individual responses to an intruder entering one’s personal space. PD is based on four theories of human spatial behaviors - proxemics (Hall, 1990), personal space (Hayduk, 1981a, 1981b), interpersonal distance (Aiello, 1987) and privacy (Westin, 1967). The present study examined whether gender and type of sport influence the emotional attitudes towards the respective sport and the size of PD in pair dancers (n = 41) and combat athletes (n = 42). Dancers and females expressed a more positive attitude towards their respective sport. Moreover, combat athletes were characterized by smaller psychological distance than dancers. The results questioned the hypothesized positive relationship between positive emotions and smaller distance.​