<div>In a study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, researchers simulated many aircraft boarding processes to assess their impact on social proximity during boarding. They also studied the dominant mechanisms by which these processes generate social proximity. The researchers systematically measured proximity by measuring the number of contacts originating from the following situations:<br>1. contacts between seated passenger pairs; 2. contacts between aisle passenger pairs; and 3. contacts between a seated passenger and an aisle passenger.</div>