There's got to be a name

… for that thing that men, especially nice men who attended liberal colleges and went through seven kinds of sensitivity training, do when they subconsciously realize that they’re walking too closely behind a woman; to wit, slow down and broaden the distance between them, as if to signal “I’m not threatening.”

It’s not a submission display, like other mammals do, and it’s not something one does if one is either in front of the woman or in a more populated area – but neither is it a fully conscious action, either.