Invisible walls: how pedestrians navigate around social interactions

Pedestrian dynamics are characterized as complex physical systems constrained by social norms, like personal space.

Yet, prior research has ignored the spatial norms imposed by others' social interactions, such as conversations.

Unlike physical obstacles, the boundaries of social interactions are latent --- even more so than those of personal space --- as if they are invisible walls, and must be inferred from signs of interactional involvement.

In four field experiments with 4,911 participants, we show that pedestrians integrate others' gaze, proximity, body orientation, and talk to avoid interrupting possible interactions.

However, pedestrians also collectively violate these spatial norms by walking through an interaction if other pedestrians had already done so.

These results demonstrate how physical mobility depends on pedestrians' social computations.