With very minor exceptions, everyone on a plane has someone in front of them potentially leaning back, but they can restore their amount of personal space by, in turn, leaning back.

…except for the poor SOB who’s sitting in front of any jerk who uses this technique to – effectively – steal space from someone.

If I was sitting on a plane flight after a long day and wanted to recline my seat – a seat with reclining abilities that I paid good money for – and some d_____ b__ had done this, I’d be pretty damned irate.

They’ll look over their seat, see what you’ve done, and escalate the situation. You’ve lost the opportunity to say “how about you only recline half-way?”. All that you’ve done with your “trick” is put the airline staff on their side by screaming “I’m a self-centered bastard who doesn’t care about anyone else.”

It’s usually better to talk to the other person before implementing a technical “fix”.