Spatial rituals

When a person takes a place or space among strangers (for example, an armchair in a cinema, a place at a meeting table or a towel hook in a sports club), he does it in a completely predictable way. Usually a person is looking for the largest space between the other two and takes place in the center. In the cinema, we choose a place in the middle between the end of the row and the nearest occupied chair. In a sports club, a person will hang a towel on a hook, located in a completely free space, midway between two employees or midway between a busy hook and a wall. The purpose of this ritual is not to disturb other people with excessive closeness or excessive distance.

Doctors and hairdressers are allowed to invade the intimate zone of a person. The same is allowed for pets as they do not pose a threat to us.

If you sit at the cinema closer to the end of the series than to another viewer, or vice versa, this person may feel offended that you are too distant from him, or frightened by your excessive closeness. The main task of the spatial ritual is to maintain harmony. This is learned behavior.
An exception to this rule is access to public toilets. In about 90% of cases, people prefer the latter in a row of booths, and if they are busy, the principle of the middle comes into play. Men always prefer not to be near strangers near urinals and never maintain eye contact at such a moment.