With close contact being identified as one of the main sources of transmission of Covid, social distancing rules have been put in place. A fear of catching or spreading the virus may have led to a fear of close contact with others. One consequence of this could be a change in interpersonal space (IPS; the area surrounding our body in which we interact comfortably with other individuals). Greater touch deprivation during the pandemic has been reported as correlating with videos of affective and non-affective touch (CT optimal versus non optimal) as more pleasant. Here we posit a mechanism for this observation and investigate the effect of perceived threat from Covid on the boundary of defensive space, and subsequent perceived pleasantness of social touch. Here we report findings from an online experiment, in which we measured fear of COVID and how it covaries with fear of touch and an expanded boundary of personal space and the resulting variation in ratings of pleasantness of vicarious affective touch. We discuss differences between how real and perceived risk affects interpersonal space boundaries across and between our German and UK cohorts and how this changes perception of touch from a loved one within or outside of our household. These results highlight not only individual and cultural differences but how these vary as a factor of who is touching us.
The Covid pandemic has led to an increase in health anxiety for many (Jungmann & Witthoft, 2020). With close contact with others being identified as one of the main sources of transmission of the virus, social distancing rules have been put in place, such as instructions to stay two metres from people who are not from one’s household. Correspondingly, for some people, a fear of catching or spreading the virus, may have led to a fear of close contact with others. One consequence of this could be a change in the boundary of defensive peripersonal space, that is, the portion of space surrounding the body, within which potentially harmful stimuli elicit stronger defensive reactions compared to stimuli located further away from the body (e.g., Craziano & Cooke, 2006; de Vignemont and Iannetti, 2015). There is evidence that anxiety can lead to the expansion of defensive space (Sambo & Ianetti, 2013). Therefore, perceived threat from the virus may lead to an expansion of defensive space, such that we feel the uncomfortable sense of an invasion of our personal space when other people are at a distance that would not normally be uncomfortable.
Another potential consequence of perceived threat from the virus, is a change in which stimuli are classed as potentially harmful, and so elicit a defensive reaction, when they occur close to the body.