Do people move seats when you sit beside them?

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Me too. I'm not exactly tall but am pretty broad (I played hooker at school - that term's going to confuse a lot of Americans ). I've found that my near permanent frown helps as well.

I guess I have whatever the male equivalent of "resting b***h face" is

Well mostly its a case of them not sitting next to me. Which is a good thing.

I'd rather stand then sit next to someone. TBH, No one sits next to me at all. As if they can feel the awkwardness radiating from my body.

No because I don't sit by people. If people sit by me then I feel really uncomfortable, but I wouldn't move because I wouldn't want them to feel bad (I actually thought this was a social rule of politeness, I didn't realise people can/do move seats if they want to).

On UK trains there are a few places that have 1 seat on its own. If I'm catching the train I always try and get this one; if someone beats me to it then I stand in the lobby bit for the whole journey (the longest I've done this is 4 hours), or I find a two-seater and read a serial killer book to keep people away (this works ). People look at you weird but I just really couldn't handle sitting next to a stranger, especially with all the strange British social rules. You either totally blank one another despite the fact you're brushing elbows, or you start a conversation from which there is no escape. There is a third option too, lechy and/or drunk people. I just want to enjoy the train...

I don't usually sit by people if it can be avoided, but no I don't think they'd necessarily move just because I sat there. I do however hate when there's like 10 empty seats and of all those someone has to come and sit right next to me especially if I have like a back pack and stuff that takes up more room than just me.

On occasion, usually with females.

Yes. Why do people do this?! It's not just a transport thing, people do it in the cinema too- there are like 100+ other seats and they still want to cluster.

I wonder if it's like a subconscious thing some people do, I mean I never get the impression they're actively trying to crowd me its like they figure it's what they're supposed to do or something.

I noticed recently while taking kiddo to the dr's that people have huge personal space there, interesting how that's different to, say, a cinema where they want to sit together. I interpert it as when people want to laugh or enjoy an experience together, they will clump together and laugh at the same jokes. When they're somewhere stressful, say the dr's or the dentist they're worried, aprehensive ect so want the space to think it out and use seating to achieve this. We went to the pharmacy after the visit to get pills and found people sitting in an akward pattern : body seat seat body seat and I'm not overly comfortable sitting so close to people, especially if they smell bad. I lead her over to the cosmetics and we drew with the ugliest coloured lipsticks on paper and had a jolly good time!

If it's women they might think you're trying to set next to them in order to hit on them and that's a way of saying they aren't interested.

I remember reading a study on a few years back but unfortunately, I can't find it.

I once took my family to a secluded beach (you had to walk a couple of kilometres along a rocky coast path to get to it). It was about a half a kilometer long with the entrance right in the centre of the beach. When we arrived, there was only one other person there - at the far left-hand end of the beach - so we walked all the way down the beach and sat at the far right-hand end, as far from the other person as possible. Everything was fine for about an hour and then another family arrived. They stopped at the entrance, looked around, saw us about 250m metres away, walked right down the beach and sat about 5 metres away from us! The whole bloody beach was empty and they sat next to us (and going by our position on the beach, it was obvious that we wanted privacy)! Bastards! I sat and fumed about it for a while, trying to understand why someone would do this. I got so worked up about it that we ended up leaving and going home.

After all these years it still pisses me off

^^^ That would piss me off too!

I think sweetleaf's right, it's probably a subconscious thing, like an instinct for company or society. Annoying .

I don't know. I don't tend to sit by people who are already sat down. If I did though and the suddenly got up to leave I'd probably ask them what's up. I've learnt that sometimes you can say things but as long as you smile while doing so people won't mind. Such as if they left straight away I might say 'I don't smell do I?' And then grin but only if I'm confident. Saying that though I don't know what would happen next because I've never actually tried that.
I've noticed that's how customers at my job talk sometimes,

UK trains are very awkward.. I was on Greater Anglia yesterday and had to move seats because a guy in front of me kept catching my eyes when i'd look up so it got painfully awkward after a while.

Last edited by owenc on 05 Nov 2016, 9:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I get on better with women so clearly I spend more time talking to women. I notice when I do talk to women they do sometimes pull away etc so I get what you mean.

Last edited by owenc on 05 Nov 2016, 9:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.