Physical proximity increases the likelihood of relationships forming.
Festinger, Schachter and Back's 1950 study of student housing found friendship tracked distance to the stairwell and mailboxes more than any measured similarity. Architecture determined the social network.
In practice
- A student whose room is beside the stairwell knows sixty people by Christmas; the one at the end of the corridor knows four.
- Two teams moved onto the same floor stop escalating to management within a quarter, having started eating lunch at the same time.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- A century and a half of measuring the mind