In a Nutshell is back! In this Vox podcast, hosts Jara Majerus and Antonia Leise take a deep dive into the university's most interesting, strange, and exciting research. Every two weeks, they invite Radboud researchers to talk about their favourite topics – explained in bite-sized episodes. In today's episode, Jara talks with Yvonne van den Berg about the significance of distance, or better said, the significance of proximity.

Why should kids not choose where they sit in a classroom? Which influence does distance have on whether we like each other? And how does distance influence success?

In the third episode of In a Nutshell, host Jara explores seating plans, distance, and proximity. Together with her guest Yvonne van den Berg, she investigates why it matters where we sit and how we use distance to communicate our feelings.

Yvonne is an assistant professor of developmental psychology. In her research, she investigates how proximity influences our social relationships and especially focusses on the role physical proximity plays in classroom social dynamics.

Do you want to know more about the significance of physical proximity? Make sure to follow Yvonne’s recommendations and read Relationships 5.0 by Elyakim Kislev or check out the experiment mentioned by Yvonne on YouTube.