It happens all the time—you are standing on a bus， listening to music， when you feel someones breath on the back of your neck. You think to yourself： Is this person getting too close to me？

The answer is yes. Everyone has a sense of personal space. But how big is this space？

According to a new study， the size of the space is different for different people， but generally it is between 20 to 40 centimeters in front of the face， reported Los Angeles Times.

In the study， researchers from University College of London asked volunteers to hold their hands at different distances from their face. They then gave them an electric shock on their hand while measuring how often the volunteers blinked. The more they blinked， the more of a threat they felt the shock was to their face.

The results among volunteers were a little different， but the average personal space was 20 to 40 centimeters. Researchers also found that the more anxious a person was， the larger their personal space was because they were more sensitive.

Besides psychological factors， culture is also thought to be able to change your personal space. For example， a person who grows up in a country where people hug a lot has less of a problem with strangers getting too close than a person who grows up in one with more distance between people.

Peoples senses of personal space also depend on the environments they are in. “If you are chatting to someone in your living room， you wont have a large safety margin at all，” explained researcher Gian Domenico Lannetti. “But if you are walking through a dangerous area， then that will be much bigger.”

Sadly， sometimes people just dont understand the idea of personal space and keep getting into yours. Whenever that happens， rather than trying to step backwards， researchers suggest that you “create a new space” by turning to wave at someone passing by or to get something out of your bag.

這種情況時(shí)有發(fā)生——你站在公交車上正聽著音樂，突然感覺到他人的鼻息噴到了你的脖子后側(cè)。你會(huì)想：這人是不是離我太近了？

答案是肯定的。每個(gè)人都有自己的個(gè)人空間感。但這個(gè)空間究竟有多大呢？

據(jù)《洛杉磯時(shí)報(bào)》報(bào)道，一項(xiàng)新研究表明，對(duì)不同人而言，個(gè)人空間大小也有所不同，但大體上都在自己面前的20—40厘米。

研究中，來自倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院的研究人員讓志愿者在自己面前不同距離處抬手，然后電擊志愿者的手，測量他們眨眼的頻率。眨眼的頻率越高，說明他們認(rèn)為電擊對(duì)自己面部的威脅程度越高。

志愿者們的實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果有細(xì)微差別，但個(gè)人空間大小平均都為20—40厘米。研究人員還發(fā)現(xiàn)，越焦慮的人，個(gè)人空間范圍越大，因?yàn)樗麄兏用舾小?/p>

除了心理因素，文化也被認(rèn)為能夠影響個(gè)人空間的大小。比如，有的國家人際距離較大，和成長于這些國家的人相比，在經(jīng)常擁抱的國家中長大的人不會(huì)對(duì)陌生人靠得太近而感到太困擾。

此外，人們的個(gè)人空間感也取決于周遭環(huán)境?！叭绻愫退嗽谧约铱蛷d里聊天，你的安全界限不會(huì)那么大。”研究者吉安·多梅尼科·伊恩內(nèi)蒂解釋稱，“但如果你正經(jīng)過一片危險(xiǎn)地區(qū)，安全界限就會(huì)大多了?！?/p>

遺憾的是，有時(shí)候一些人就是不明白個(gè)人空間的概念，不斷地闖入你的個(gè)人空間。每當(dāng)這種情況發(fā)生時(shí)，研究人員建議，不要試圖往后退，而是通過向路過的人招手打招呼，或者從包里拿東西來“創(chuàng)造一個(gè)新空間”。