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By Root 696 0

by a sea of unknown faces, notice how, like a preprogrammed robot, you will begin to obey the unwritten rules of masking in a crowded public place. As you compete for territorial rights to the armrest with the stranger beside you, you will begin to realize why those who often go to a crowded cinema alone do not take their seats until the lights are out and the film begins. Whether we are in a crowded elevator, cinema, or bus, people around us become nonpersons—that is, they don't exist as far as we're concerned and so we don't respond as if we were being attacked if someone inadvertently encroaches on our territory.

Why Mobs Become Angry

An angry mob or group of protesters fighting for a mutual purpose does not react in the same way as an individual does when his territory is invaded; in fact, something very different occurs. As the density of the crowd increases, each individual has less personal space and starts to feel hostile, which is why, as the size of the mob increases, it becomes angrier and uglier and fights may break out. The police try to break up the crowd so that each person can regain his own personal space and become calmer.

Only in recent years have governments and town planners begun to understand the effect that high-density housing projects have in depriving individuals of their personal territory. The consequences of high-density living and overcrowding were seen in a study of the deer population on James Island, an island about a mile off the coast of Maryland in Chesapeake Bay in the United States. Many of the deer were dying in large numbers, despite the fact that at the time there was plenty of food, predators were not evident, and infection was not present. Similar studies in earlier years with rats and rabbits revealed the same trend and further investigation showed that the deer had died as a result of overactive adrenal glands, resulting from the stress caused by the degradation of each deer's personal territory as the population increased. The adrenal glands play an important part in the regulation of growth, reproduction, and the level of the body's defenses. A physiological reaction to the stress of overpopulation had caused the deaths, not starvation, infection, or aggression from others. This is why areas that have the highest human population density also have the highest crime and violence rates.

One of our deepest urges is the desire to own

land. This compulsion comes from the fact that it

gives us the space freedom we need.

Interrogators use territorial invasion techniques to break down the resistance of criminals being questioned. They seat the criminal on an armless, fixed chair in an open area of the room and encroach into his Intimate Zones when asking questions, remaining there until he answers. It often takes only a short while for this territorial harassment to break down the criminal's resistance.

Spacing Rituals

When a person claims a space or an area among strangers, such as a seat at the cinema, a place at the conference table, or a towel hook at the health club, he does it in a predictable way. He usually looks for the widest space available between two others and claims the area in the center. At the cinema he will choose a seat that is halfway between the end of a row and where the nearest person is sitting. At the health club, he chooses the towel hook that is in the largest available space, midway between two other towels or midway between the nearest towel and the end of the towel rack. The purpose of this ritual is to avoid offending the other people by being either too close or too far away from them.

Doctors and hairdressers are given permission

to enter our Intimate Zones. We allow pets in at

any time because they're not threatening.

At the cinema, if you choose a seat more than halfway between the end of the row and the nearest other person, that other person may feel offended if you are too far away from him or he may feel intimidated if you sit too close. The main purpose of this spacing ritual is to maintain harmony and it appears