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Please point me to the articles' irony. It's easy to miss in that mess.

by arpa 11y ago

splawn 11y ago
I think they are referring to irony found in some of the reactions to the article not the article content. I have never really thought about personal space being a fear response before. I always just thought I hated other people breathing on me.
- mcguire 11y ago
  To me, it's more of a safety issue. I move erratically.
Eric_WVGG 11y ago
Histrionic knee-jerks reactions are a common response to fear. Numerous people here are simultaneously announcing that they are protective of their personal space, and lashing out at the article -- one person even admitted that it triggered his "flight or fight" response. All of this is anecdotal proof of the thesis. (Just as an additional anecdote of the flip side of this, I have no personal space issues -- I like crowds and subways -- and have somewhat reckless tendencies)
- arpa 11y ago
  Histrionic statements receive histrionic reactions; I fail to see connection with fear, fright or threat. I mean, we're all just flinging poo here and that's about it. What got to me is not the title, but the way how an fascinating topic was dragged down to the gutter and then just choked to death. I mean personal space is just another boundary, which one has to cross to "get up close and personal". It is an act of aggression. Now who displays that aggression, is what determines what kind of response you'll get. If it's your sweetheart in a sexy mood, the response will be sexual. If it's a skinhead with a knife, it will be a fear response. The action is the same: violation of personal space; the circumstances are not. You could write a dissertation on that alone. And well here we have a person obviously not in the field, writing a biology column on neuroscience using one quote of neuroscientist and a case study of a brain-damaged patient to drive her point that "personal space is a fear response" and not even doing that well. Sorry. The article is just bad.
mcguire 11y ago
The irony is in the comments here. Most people are bad at recognizing the irony in their own responses. Personally, since personal space is known to be very culturally specific, I'd like to see if the physiological responses they measured similarly differ by culture. (They may not be measuring personal space phenomena at all.)
- arpa 11y ago
  I've read somwhere that understanding irony comes at about 8 years of age. I guess some people are younger than that :D

Please point me to the articles' irony. It's easy to miss in that mess.

by arpa 11y ago

Please point me to the articles' irony. It's easy to miss in that mess.

I think they are referring to irony found in some of the reactions to the article not the article content. I have never really thought about personal space being a fear response before. I always just thought I hated other people breathing on me.

mcguire 11y ago
To me, it's more of a safety issue. I move erratically.

Eric_WVGG 11y ago

Histrionic knee-jerks reactions are a common response to fear. Numerous people here are simultaneously announcing that they are protective of their personal space, and lashing out at the article -- one person even admitted that it triggered his "flight or fight" response. All of this is anecdotal proof of the thesis. (Just as an additional anecdote of the flip side of this, I have no personal space issues -- I like crowds and subways -- and have somewhat reckless tendencies)

arpa 11y ago
Histrionic statements receive histrionic reactions; I fail to see connection with fear, fright or threat. I mean, we're all just flinging poo here and that's about it. What got to me is not the title, but the way how an fascinating topic was dragged down to the gutter and then just choked to death. I mean personal space is just another boundary, which one has to cross to "get up close and personal". It is an act of aggression. Now who displays that aggression, is what determines what kind of response you'll get. If it's your sweetheart in a sexy mood, the response will be sexual. If it's a skinhead with a knife, it will be a fear response. The action is the same: violation of personal space; the circumstances are not. You could write a dissertation on that alone. And well here we have a person obviously not in the field, writing a biology column on neuroscience using one quote of neuroscientist and a case study of a brain-damaged patient to drive her point that "personal space is a fear response" and not even doing that well. Sorry. The article is just bad.

mcguire 11y ago

The irony is in the comments here. Most people are bad at recognizing the irony in their own responses. Personally, since personal space is known to be very culturally specific, I'd like to see if the physiological responses they measured similarly differ by culture. (They may not be measuring personal space phenomena at all.)

arpa 11y ago
I've read somwhere that understanding irony comes at about 8 years of age. I guess some people are younger than that :D