Virtual Environments and Human-Computer Interaction Anxiety: An Experimental Study

In a world where interaction is a significant part of everyday life, personal space (PS) – an invisible bubble surrounding human body is important. This is because PS functions as a comfort zone during interaction, a factor in designing physical environments, and invading such space produces anxiety and discomfort. Little is known, however, about how personal space might operate in virtual environments and what features the interface model of these environments should incorporate in order to reduce the anxiety produced by the invasions of such space in these environments. To begin to address this, we have conducted two experiments concerning personal space invasions (PSI) in collaborative virtual environments (CVE). Results suggest that reactions to PSI in CVE tend to differ in various ways from reactions to PSI in the physical world though some participants experienced anxiety when their avatar personal space was invaded. Recommendations to incorporate some features in the interface model of these environments are presented.