Social presence and psychological distance: A construal level account for online distance learning

Abstract

Online distance learning presents unique psychosocial characteristics due to the inherent distance between learners. Social presence –the sense of being with others– is key to mitigating this distance. However, our understanding of social presence remains limited, despite its potential to reduce social isolation and cultivate a conducive social space in online education. A gap in our understanding relates to how social presence aligns with more general accounts of interpersonal representations under conditions of psychological distance, as presented in Construal Level Theory. We conducted a vignette-based experiment (N = 194) to examine how psychological distance in online learning affects the mental construal level of a hypothetical partner and, thus, social presence perceptions. Findings suggest that increased psychological distance leads to higher-level construals, resulting in a perception of conversation partners as non-descript and homogenous. Importantly, this affects social presence perceptions, with certain nuances. These findings can inform novel approaches to enhance social presence in online learning.