PROXEMICS: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SPANISH AND FINNISH DISTANCE BEHAVIOR

Since the middle of the XX century, a special place in research on intercultural communication has been given to proxemics. Proxemics studies the influence of national characteristics on distance between communication participants. This distance is affected by various factors, such as the geographical location, social, political, economic and other features of the state. Also we should understand that history of different nations since the times of tribes and nomads has also influenced the attitude of modern nations to the area around its representatives. The factors above contribute to the formation of different mentalities, as well as different attitudes to personal space. For the practical part of the study, the authors have selected two European Nations to study the size of personal space in communication. The study is based both on theoretical scientific articles and news updates in order to enlighten the unexplored fields of scientific researches in Proxemic Study specifically for Finnish and Spanish society as two completely different representatives of one geographical European area.