People closely monitor and appropriately regulate their interpersonal space to obtain a comfortable distance while interacting with others. In this line of studies, we examined the perception of the interpersonal distance in populations that are prone to difficulties in regulating the interpersonal distance adaptevelly- in social anxiety disorder, and in autism spectrum disorder. Our results indicated that the way in which the interpersonal distance is perceived, can predict the actual distance the individual would prefer to maintain from others. For example, individuals with social anxiety perceive the interpersonal distance as shorter, which, in turn, is associated with their preference for greater interpersonal distance from the social partner. We use novel implicit and explicit measures for distance perception and regulation that were developed in the lab. These tasks are both computerized and simulating a real-life scenario. Current line of work is examining the role of the distance estimation bias in regulating interpersonal distance among individuals with autism.
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