Virtual café experiment finds Japanese participants keep greater distance than Italians
How close do we stand to other people during a social interaction? The distance we maintain between our body and that of another person—known as interpersonal distance—is a fundamental aspect of everyday ...
How close do we stand to other people during a social interaction? The distance we maintain between our body and that of another person—known as interpersonal distance—is a fundamental aspect of everyday life. It influences our sense of comfort, safety, intimacy and tendency to approach or avoid others. This distance can vary depending on the context, the characteristics of the other person, our emotional state, and our personal and social background.
A new study carried out by researchers from Sapienza University, the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ernst & Young (EY), and IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia used immersive virtual reality to investigate how Italian and Japanese participants regulate interpersonal distance when interacting with virtual agents displaying either Asian or Caucasian facial features. The research was conducted "in the wild," meaning in real public settings, with participants recruited and tested at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, and Maker Faire Rome, Italy.
The study, coordinated by Salvatore Maria Aglioti, a researcher at Sapienza University and the Italian Institute of Technology, with Matteo Lisi as first author, was recently published in Computers in Human Behavior as part of the special issue "Immersive Technologies and Intergroup Relations: Advances, Challenges, and Future Directions."
Testing personal space in public
Unlike many previous studies conducted exclusively in laboratory settings, this research took place in public environments. This approach made it possible to combine a controlled experimental paradigm based on portable virtual reality technology with settings that more closely resemble real-life social interactions.
During the experiment, 184 participants—92 Japanese and 92 Italians—were immersed in a virtual cafe. In each trial, a virtual agent appeared in front of them, and participants adjusted the agent's position until reaching the distance at which they felt most comfortable. The virtual agents varied in gender and perceived ethnicity, displaying either Asian or Caucasian features. Participants also rated several characteristics of each agent, including attractiveness and trustworthiness, and completed a measure of implicit attitudes.
Cultural differences and first impressions
The results showed that, overall, Japanese participants preferred to maintain greater interpersonal distances than Italian participants. Moreover, regardless of participants' cultural background, virtual agents perceived as more attractive or more trustworthy were positioned significantly closer. These findings suggest that first social impressions influence the regulation of personal space even in virtual environments.
Another key finding concerns the role of implicit attitudes. Participants with a stronger pro-Caucasian implicit bias tended to maintain greater distances from Asian virtual agents than from Caucasian ones. This suggests that automatic social evaluations can also be reflected in spatial behaviors measured in virtual reality.
Virtual reality as a social lens
"With this study, we wanted to test whether virtual reality could be used not only as a controlled simulation, but also as a portable tool for measuring social behavior in public settings," says Lisi. "The possibility of standardizing the appearance and behavior of virtual agents," adds Althea Frisanco, an IIT researcher, "allows us to study interpersonal distance with high precision while reducing many of the variables that are difficult to control during face-to-face interactions."
The study contributes to the growing body of research exploring the use of virtual reality to investigate social and intergroup relationships. Virtual environments make it possible to create realistic yet highly controlled situations in which researchers can observe how people regulate their behavior in the presence of other individuals or social agents. This is particularly relevant at a time when virtual spaces and immersive interactions are becoming increasingly widespread.
Overall, Aglioti concludes, the findings demonstrate the potential of immersive virtual reality as a valuable tool for studying proxemics, that is, the way people regulate space during social interactions, and for understanding how cultural differences, first impressions and implicit attitudes contribute to shaping interpersonal behavior, even in digital environments.
Publication details
Matteo P. Lisi et al, Virtual proxemics "in the wild": a cross-cultural comparison between Japanese and Italian adults recruited at public fairs, Computers in Human Behavior (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2026.109089
Who's behind this story?
BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021. Full profile →
Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →
Citation: Virtual café experiment finds Japanese participants keep greater distance than Italians (2026, July 23) retrieved 23 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-virtual-caf-japanese-greater-distance.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.