Personal space

Most people understand the concept of personal space, but how that actually translates into inches of separation differs between one person and another, between one culture and another. One person can be made uncomfortable if the person they are talking with steps within arms length, another still feels comfortable when the person is standing within inches.

However, most people are trained from a young age to understand that it is inappropriate for a stranger to be touching them intimately. Of course police "frisking" is different. If you are suspected of committing, or have actually committed a crime, then frisking is the order of the day, and that touching is likely to be very intimate indeed.

Perhaps this early training is why the pat downs performed by the TSA are making people so very uncomfortable. It isn't that a crime is involved, it is just that either you triggered a scan or you were randomly selected.

These days, personal space in the airport is a thing of the past...