Effect of Personal Space Invasion on Passenger Comfort and Comfort Design of an Aircraft Cabin

Passenger comfort is becoming an important issue with the recent increase in air travel. A common cause of passenger discomfort and distress is the invasion of the passenger’s personal space. This paper presents the results of two studies addressing the environmental psychological characteristics of passengers during personal space invasion (PSI) and how PSI affects cabin comfort design. In study 1, our survey shows that PSI has different effects on the comfort of passengers with different genders, ages, education levels, and interpersonal relationships. From these survey data, we extracted 14 factors of PSI. In study 2, a Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) model was established, with passenger comfort as the target layer, to determine the interrelation between 14 PSI factors. The causal relationships between the 14 factors were visualized by a causal diagram. We established a priority ranking of the 14 aircraft interior design indexes based on the corresponding relationships between the indexes and PSI factors. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of how PSI impacts passenger comfort and offer strategies to improve the comfort design of aircraft cabins.