Here we sought to understand how perceived personal space is influenced by a number of variables that could influence Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ); specifically, we tested how different levels of social density, spatial density, noise presence, and type of view impact the appreciation of personal space in a shared office environment. We employed virtual reality (VR) to simulate shared and single occupancy offices and devised a novel measure of personal space estimation. We also used a traditional personal space satisfaction score. Participants experienced greater perceived personal space when (1) in a sparsely populated rather than a dense office, (2) in a private office rather than an open plan office, and (3) having any view outside of the office. We did not find an effect of the presence of noise or increased social density (with spatial density held constant) on the perception of personal space.

We sought to understand how the perception of personal space is influenced by different levels of social density, spatial density, and type of view impact in South Korea and in the United Kingdom. We employed virtual reality (VR) technology to simulate shared and single occupancy offices and tested a sample of 20 British and 24 Korean participants. Uniquely, we obtained personal space estimations using a virtual disc around the participant which could be extended and retracted to indicate perceived amount of personal space. A more traditional personal space satisfaction score was also determined. We found that in both cultures participants experienced greater perceived personal space 1) when in a sparse rather than dense office and 2) having a view of the city outside the office. Both British and Korean participants had higher personal space satisfaction in the single occupancy office than in shared offices. However, British, but not Korean, participants had significantly higher personal space estimations in single occupancy offices than in shared offices. These results suggest that there is some disparity between abstract scores of personal space satisfaction and more concrete personal space estimates; further, this may be linked to subtle cross-cultural differences in workplace experience.

We sought to understand how the perception of personal space is influenced by different levels of social density, spatial density, and type of window-view in South Korean and United Kingdom workplaces. We employed virtual reality to simulate shared and single occupancy offices. We obtained personal space estimations using a virtual disc around the participant which could be extended and retracted, inside the simulation, to indicate perceived amount of personal space, and compared this measure to questionnaire-based estimations. We found that in both cultures participants experienced greater perceived personal space (1) when in a sparse rather than dense office and (2) having a view of the city outside the office. However, British, but not Korean, participants had significantly higher personal space estimations in single occupancy offices than in shared offices. These results suggest subtle cross-cultural differences in workplace experience, that could only be investigated using virtual reality.

In recent years there has been renewed focus on workplace design and its impact on workers’ productivity and satisfaction, particularly in open plan offices. Extensive research has been conducted to date on the topic of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). Here we sought to understand how perceived personal space is influenced by a number of variables that could influence IEQ; specifically, we tested how different levels of social density, spatial density, environmental noise presence, and type of view impact the appreciation of personal space in a shared office environment. We employed virtual reality (VR) technology to simulate shared and single occupancy offices and tested a sample of 60 participants over three experiments. We devised a novel measure of personal space estimation using a virtual disc around the participant which could be extended and retracted to indicate the perceived amount of personal space. We also used a traditional personal space satisfaction score. We found that participants experienced greater perceived personal space when 1) in a sparse rather than a dense office, 2) in a private office rather than an open plan office, and 3) having any view outside of the office. We did not find an effect of the presence of noise or increased social density (with spatial density held constant) on the perception of personal space. The results confirmed that simulated personal space in a VR environment can elicit natural, realistic responses of perceptions of spatial dimensions and that the features of the virtual office determine individual levels of personal space.