It could also be that more unconscious automatic processes influence how children use interpersonal
distance. Recently, studies have examined the association between implicit judgments and
the distance people automatically keep. Negative implicit evaluations predicted how close people
chose to sit to a presumable partner (Amodio & Devine, 2006) and how much people approach a person
from an ethnic minority (Dotsch & Wigboldus, 2008). Based on these studies, one could argue that
children might base their seating arrangements not only on their explicit evaluations of peers but also
on their implicit judgments.