What Is the Proximity Principle in Psychology?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsIn Gestalt PsychologyExamplesIn Social PsychologyWhat the Research SaysPotential Pitfalls

Table of ContentsView All

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Table of Contents

In Gestalt Psychology

Examples

In Social Psychology

What the Research Says

Potential Pitfalls

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The proximity principle in psychology describes the way relationships are formed between things close to one another.

Ingestalt psychology, the proximity principle is one of severalgestalt principles of perceptual organizationand states that people treat objects close together as a group.

In social psychology, the proximity principle suggests that people closer together in a physical environment are more likely to form a relationship than those farther away.

The Proximity Principle in Gestalt Psychology

To explain this, they came up with a series of principles that describe how we organize and interpret shapes, figures, objects, colors, and any other element that we perceive. They were dubbed Gestalt principles because Gestalt means “shape” in German.

One of the original Gestalt principles is theprinciple (or law) of proximity, which claims that things closer to each other appear more related than things farther apart. Proximity has remarkable sway over our visual perception, to the point that it can even override other factors such as similarity in color or shape.

Examples of the Proximity Principle

Consider this article. The words are organized into sentences, which are then organized into paragraphs. As a result, you see each paragraph as an individual group. Even if I wrote every other sentence in each paragraph in red, you would still read each paragraph as a unit instead of reading all the black sentences and then all the red sentences.

Organizing the sentences based on proximity overrides any instinct to organize the sentences based on similar colors.

For example, think about a photo where an object like a lamppost appears to be rising out of a person’s head. When someone took the photo, the lamppost may have been far behind them, but we group the person’s head and the lamppost because the three-dimensional space was collapsed into a two-dimensional image. In two dimensions, they visually appear to form a single entity.

Figure-Ground Perception in Psychology

The Proximity Principle in Social Psychology

Interestingly, just as our visual perception tends to perceive objects in close proximity as related, people who are in close physical proximity naturally tend to form relationships with one another. This is a much-studied phenomenon insocial psychology.

Even though proximity exerts an unconscious influence, research has shown it has a robust impact on who people interact with and form connections with the most. While this means you are more likely to form relationships with people who live and work in the same city, it’s also more specific than that.

For instance, people who sit physically closer together in the same office or classroom are more likely to form relationships than those who sit farther apart. As a result, people may be more likely to strike up a friendship with their lab partner at school or their co-worker in the next cubicle than they are with someone else.

How a Social Construct Works

Research on the Proximity Principle

Some research demonstrates that even though people are more likely to form relationships with those who are physically closer to them, those relationships aren’t always positive.

For example, one study found that people are more likely to dislike those who live close to them. While friendship was also shown to be dependent on physical proximity, friendships required frequent face-to-face contact to thrive. In contrast, disliking thrived even if those who lived in close proximity rarely saw one another in person.

Potential Pitfalls of the Proximity Principle

While the proximity principle, as described in both social psychology and gestalt psychology, can help us more easily understand how objects and even people form relationships, it’s also important to note that it can lead to pitfalls.

For example, say you go to a school with a homogenous student body and, therefore, only form friendships with those similar to you in factors like race and class. This can result in stereotyping and intolerance of those who may be different.

How Groupthink Impacts Our Behavior

4 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Johnson J.Designing With The Mind In Mind: Simple Guide To Understanding User Interface Design Rules. Burlington, Mass.: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; 2010.Finkel EJ, Baumeister RF. Attraction and Rejection. In: Baumeister RF, Finkel EJ, ed.Advanced Social Psychology: The State Of The Science. 1st ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2010:419-459.Zajonc RB.Attitudinal effects of mere exposure.J Pers Soc Psychol. 1968;9(2, Pt.2):1-27. doi:10.1037/h0025848Ebbesen E, Kjos G, Konečni V. Spatial ecology: Its effects on the choice of friends and enemies.J Exp Soc Psychol. 1976;12(6):505-518. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(76)90030-5

4 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Johnson J.Designing With The Mind In Mind: Simple Guide To Understanding User Interface Design Rules. Burlington, Mass.: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; 2010.Finkel EJ, Baumeister RF. Attraction and Rejection. In: Baumeister RF, Finkel EJ, ed.Advanced Social Psychology: The State Of The Science. 1st ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2010:419-459.Zajonc RB.Attitudinal effects of mere exposure.J Pers Soc Psychol. 1968;9(2, Pt.2):1-27. doi:10.1037/h0025848Ebbesen E, Kjos G, Konečni V. Spatial ecology: Its effects on the choice of friends and enemies.J Exp Soc Psychol. 1976;12(6):505-518. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(76)90030-5

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Johnson J.Designing With The Mind In Mind: Simple Guide To Understanding User Interface Design Rules. Burlington, Mass.: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; 2010.Finkel EJ, Baumeister RF. Attraction and Rejection. In: Baumeister RF, Finkel EJ, ed.Advanced Social Psychology: The State Of The Science. 1st ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2010:419-459.Zajonc RB.Attitudinal effects of mere exposure.J Pers Soc Psychol. 1968;9(2, Pt.2):1-27. doi:10.1037/h0025848Ebbesen E, Kjos G, Konečni V. Spatial ecology: Its effects on the choice of friends and enemies.J Exp Soc Psychol. 1976;12(6):505-518. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(76)90030-5

Johnson J.Designing With The Mind In Mind: Simple Guide To Understanding User Interface Design Rules. Burlington, Mass.: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; 2010.

Finkel EJ, Baumeister RF. Attraction and Rejection. In: Baumeister RF, Finkel EJ, ed.Advanced Social Psychology: The State Of The Science. 1st ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2010:419-459.

Zajonc RB.Attitudinal effects of mere exposure.J Pers Soc Psychol. 1968;9(2, Pt.2):1-27. doi:10.1037/h0025848

Ebbesen E, Kjos G, Konečni V. Spatial ecology: Its effects on the choice of friends and enemies.J Exp Soc Psychol. 1976;12(6):505-518. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(76)90030-5

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