Why can one person calm a distorted subway hall but make an empty bedroom scarier?

Answer: Social expectations flip

Social expectations flip ✓ — Right. One built-environment study found this exact reversal: people reduced uncanniness in distorted public interiors but increased it in private rooms. The broader reason is social: public-space research treats benign social presence as a safety cue, while privacy research treats control over personal territory as basic. The same human figure changes sign because the room's social rules changed.

People provide scale cues — Plausible, because people can help you judge the size of a corridor or doorway. But scale cues do not explain the public/private reversal. The same human figure is reassuring in a subway-like hall and alarming in a bedroom because each room carries a different rule about who belongs there.

A stranger signals danger — Plausible, because an unexpected stranger in a bedroom can signal danger. But the same logic would not explain why a person calms the distorted subway hall. The better rule is social fit: another person belongs in a public hall far more than in a bedroom.