What are the four main relative distances?

• A. Intimate, personal, social, public
• B. Intimate, personal, public, private
• C. Close, near, middle, far
• D. Executive, managerial, supervisory, staff

Answer: (A)

Proxemics, the study of how people use space in communication, identifies four main relative distances: intimate, personal, social, and public. Intimate distance covers close relationships and physical contact, typically up to about 18 inches. Personal distance is for comfortable conversations with friends and family, roughly 1.5 to 4 feet. Social distance fits interactions with acquaintances or in small groups, about 4 to 12 feet. Public distance is used when addressing a crowd or speaking to a large audience, generally beyond 12 feet. The other options don’t fit because they use terms that aren’t standard zones of interpersonal space, such as private or organizational levels, which don’t describe spatial distance in how people relate during communication.