Collision avoidance behaviours when circumventing people of different sizes in various positions and locations

The current study examined whether young adults' avoidance behaviours differed when circumventing a larger versus smaller interferer. It was expected that avoidance behaviours (repulsion) would be affected by the interferer's size (i.e., greater repulsion for larger body size). Participants (n = 20) walked along an 8 m pathway towards a goal while avoiding either a larger or smaller sized male interferer who stood stationary facing forward, backward, left, or right and were located 2, 4, or 6 m from the participants' starting position. Results revealed that there was an effect of interferer body size (personal-characteristics) and orientation (situational-characteristics) on M-L clearance between the interferer and participant at the time of crossing, suggesting that repulsion magnitudes are scaled to an interferer's closest body surface.