Dimensions Of Psychological Distance Research Articles

Electronic-word-of-mouth performance in different psychological distances and familiarity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use a familiarity and psychological distance framework to investigate the effects of psychological distance (responsibility distance and temporal distance) and destination familiarity on electronic-word-of-mouth (eWOM) consumption in the tourism context. The performance of eWOM is compared with that of traditional-word-of-mouth (tWOM) and the web site of the destination marketing organisation (DMO). Design/methodology/approach – An experiment approach was used to collect the relevant data. For each of the eight scenarios generated by varying psychological distance dimensions and destination familiarity levels, 200 participants rated the extent that they would use eWOM, tWOM and the DMO web site to search for attraction and local transport information. The data were analysed using 2×2×2 within-subject ANOVA and t-test. Findings – The analysis highlighted the versatility of eWOM in different psychological distances and familiarity levels. By and large, eWOM performs better than the DMO web site but is on par with tWOM. The advantages of eWOM over tWOM are meaningful under certain circumstances. Despite sharing a common psychological basis, psychological distance dimensions affect information search differently, and the effects are shaped by the types of tourism products being searched. When psychological distance, destination familiarity, tourism products and information sources are considered in totality, a complex picture of their relationship with intensity of information search is shown. Originality/value – This study bridged the research gap by increasing our understanding of the performance of eWOM under different psychological distances and familiarity levels. The study also provides some suggestions for DMOs to leverage on eWOM and to improve the standing of DMO web site as a tourism information source.

The Nature and Effects of Distance Bias in Consumer Evaluation

Through a large-scale field study of 166,215 online restaurant reviews, we found evidence of a distance boosting effect, whereby experiencing spatial distance (i.e., authoring a review about a geographically distant restaurant, rather than proximate one) and temporal distance (i.e., authoring a review after a lengthy delay, rather than immediately) amplified consumers’ high-level construals. Although past research has explored the relationship between spatial distance, temporal distance, and construal, these effects have only been considered in isolation (on a notable range of outcomes), yet never in tandem. Our research contributes to past work by testing the effects of experiencing two dimensions of psychological distance simultaneously on construal level, and on a downstream consequence thereof: positivity. Moreover, because our data contain naturalistic observations, our research includes a wide range of temporal and spatial distances. In all, we found that the effect of each distance increases the effect (on construal and positivity) of the other distance. Metaphorically speaking, the effect of one distance is boosted by another.

Four Ways to Infect Me: Spatial, Temporal, Social, and Probability Distance Influence Evaluations of Disease Threat

Recent evidence suggests the existence of a human behavioral immune system that helps identify and minimize exposure to disease threats. Although past research has identified a number of physical and visual cues that can activate the behavioral immune system, in the current investigation, we explore the possibility that this system can be triggered by subtle psychological cues. Specifically, we posit that the psychological proximity between the self and a disease threat signals potential danger, and that, as such, a diverse set of psychological distance dimensions (e.g., spatial, temporal, social, and probability distances) can influence the perception of threat. In four studies, we illustrate how both explicit and subtle cues of closeness along these distance dimensions affect the social cognitive processes involved in perceiving and reacting to disease threats. Together, these findings have implications for how government officials, the media, and the general public communicate about the threat of emerging infectious diseases.

Effects of psychological distance on assessment of severity of water pollution

We conducted 2 studies to investigate the role of psychological distance in the assessment of degree of severity of water pollution. In Study 1, 132 participants evaluated the severity of water pollution with 3 dimensions of psychological distance, that is, temporal, social, and probability, each comprising 3 levels. Results showed that temporal distance did not have a significant influence on the assessment of the severity of water pollution, whereas probability and social distance did. In Study 2, 146 participants evaluated the severity of water pollution in three 2 × 2 designs and one 2 × 2 × 2 design. Results demonstrated that, when the 3 psychological distances coexisted, the main effect of probability distance on severity assessment was significant, but neither temporal nor social distance had a significant effect.

Sooner or Later: How Temporal Distance Influences Decisions and Dynamics within Organizations

Despite an increased interest in the effects of temporal distance on outcomes relevant to management scholarship, there is still much to understand about the way in which it affects processes and outcomes both at the individual and team level. This symposium advances current knowledge about temporal distance by addressing a few important gaps in the literature. The first two papers deepen our understanding of how temporal distance affects a) the way people process information when making important decisions, such as health decisions and b) the way people assess risk associated with innovation behaviors. Recognizing that the perceived distance between two events does not always perfectly reflect the actual passage of time, the third paper explores the effects of landmark events (e.g., birthdays, job changes) on individuals’ subjective time perceptions and subsequent goal pursuit. The fourth and last paper in this symposium segues from the first three papers (and most of past research on temporal distance), which focus solely on temporal distance at the individual level, to explore all four dimensions of psychological distance – temporal, social, physical, and hypothetical distance – in the context of team processes and interpersonal differences. Taken together, the four papers in this symposium advance our understanding of the important role that temporal distance plays in shaping individual employees’ decisions and workplace dynamics. The Impact of Temporal Distance and Climate on Perceived Risk and Innovative Behaviors Presenter: James Berry; U. College London Presenter: David A Hofmann; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Presenter: Deirdre Gobeille Snyder; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Does Difference = Distance? Experiencing Diversity as Psychological Construal of Teams in Time Presenter: David A. Harrison; The U. of Texas at Austin Presenter: Luis Martins; The U. of Texas at Austin Presenter: Yurianna Kim; The U. of Texas at Austin Effects of Temporal Distance on Cancer Screening Decisions Presenter: Cheryl Wakslak; U. of Southern California Presenter: Alison Ledgerwood; U. of California, Davis Presenter: Amber Sanchez; U. of California Davis Meaningful Temporal Landmarks Distance Past Imperfections and Motivate Aspirational Behavior Presenter: Hengchen Dai; U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Katherine L. Milkman; U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Jason Riis; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania

Future events are far away: Exploring the distance-on-distance effect.

Four dimensions of psychological distance (temporal, social, spatial, and probabilistic) have been widely studied. This research examines the distance-on-distance effect where an event that is close or distal along one dimension of psychological distance will be judged to be close or distal along other dimensions. For example, individuals will perceive greater likelihood to win a lottery (probabilistic distance) if they sit closer to the prize (spatial distance). Drawing on 2 streams of findings in the construal level literature, I propose that this distance-on-distance effect is mediated by construal level induced by the known distance and only occurs when the psychological distance is egocentric. Five studies provide evidence supporting the basic effect, its underlying mechanism, and the boundary condition. These findings have important implications for the construal level literature, together with the research on distance perceptions.

The Effect of Psychological Distance on Intertemporal Choice and Risky Choice

Temporal distance, social distance and probabilistic distance are three basic dimensions of psychological distance. It has been proved that different kinds of psychological distance have similar effects on cognitive representations of events. In general, distant events are represented as high-level construals, whereas near events are represented as low-level construals. As events become more distant, the high-level construals become more influential in shaping preference whereas the low-level construals become less influential(Liberman, Trope, Stephan, 2007; Liberman, Trope, 2008; Trope, Liberman, 2010).This study investigates the effects of temporal, social and probabilistic distance on intertemporal choice and risky choice. We hypothesize that different kinds of distance have similar effects on intertemporal and risky choice, based on the assumptions that these three kinds of distance share the same nature as psychological distance, and that intertemporal choice and risky choice have common processes of option representation and weighting. When psychological distance increases, money magnitude as high-level construal becomes more influential while time and probability as low-level construals become less influential(Sagristano, Trope, Liberman, 2002; Trope Liberman, 2003). Therefore, participants in distant conditions would choose delayed and risky alternatives with larger monetary value.Experiment 1 investigated the effect of temporal distance on intertemporal and risky choices. Participants were told that they would participate in a visual experiment, but before that they needed to make an intertemporal choice as their rewards between "$50 immediately" and "$90 in 3 months"(experiment 1a), or between " $ 50 for sure" and " $ 200 with the probability of 20%"(experiment 1b). In near condition, the experiment would be conducted soon, and in distant condition the experiment would be conducted in 6 months.Experiment 2 investigated the effect of social distance. In near condition, participants would make choice for themselves, and in distant condition, for other people. Experiment 3 investigated the effect of probabilistic distance. In near condition, participants were told that they would participate in the experiment with 90%probability, and in distant condition, with 10% probability. The options of intertemporal choice and risky choice are similar to experiment 1. The results show that no matter what kind of distance was involved, there were more participants in distant condition who chose delayed or risky alternatives than those who did in near condition,which confirms the hypotheses.The similar effects of temporal, social and probabilistic distance on intertemporal and risky choices suggest that intermporal and risky choices share common psychological process, and these three kinds of distance are homogeneous psychological distance.

Effects of Social and Temporal Distance on Evaluation of Corporate Ambivalent Behavior

Based on construal level theory and subadditivity effect, in this study we examined the joint impacts of multiple dimensions of psychological distance (i.e., social and temporal distance) on consumer evaluations of a company in which the behavior was ambivalent in terms of morality or competence. The findings indicated that consumers perceiving the company as both socially and temporally close evaluated it more favorably when ambivalence concerned morality. However, when 1 or more dimensions of psychological distance extended, consumers tended to evaluate the company more favorably when the source of ambivalence concerned competence. These findings suggest that consumer evaluations of a company are influenced by not only which aspect of company behavior is ambivalent, but also by whether or not it is a single dimension or multiple dimensions of psychological distance being considered. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Distance from a distance: Psychological distance reduces sensitivity to any further psychological distance.

What is the difference between far and further? Investigations into such psychological distancing--removal from an egocentric reference point--have suggested similarities between geographical space, time, probability, and social distance. We draw on these similarities to propose that experiencing any kind of distance will reduce sensitivity to any other distance. Nine studies varied the initial distance of an event and assessed sensitivity to a second distance. Consistently, people were less responsive to a given span of distance when it was distal versus proximal. This effect held using each of the four distances as the initial instantiation of distance; it also held using each dimension to assess sensitivity to distance (i.e., as the second distance dimension). These findings suggest that the dimensions of psychological distance share a common, interchangeable meaning and that the cross-dimension difference between far and further is less than that between near and far.

Culture, Distance, and Threat Perception: Comment on Stamps (2011)

Stamps found that the effects of visual cues on the perception of threat decrease with distance, even when the range of distance is extended to 45 m. The present comment suggests that the findings Stamps obtained in a Western culture may not hold in other cultures. The robustness of these findings might be improved by using real targets at actual physical distances and "necessarily high" threats. Further studies are needed to examine whether other dimensions of psychological distance have the same effect on threat perception as does spatial distance. There is also a need to examine whether perceived threats have a significant effect on the perception of spatial distance.

The Psychological Distance of Climate Change

Avoiding dangerous climate change is one of the most urgent social risk issues we face today and understanding related public perceptions is critical to engaging the public with the major societal transformations required to combat climate change. Analyses of public perceptions have indicated that climate change is perceived as distant on a number of different dimensions. However, to date there has been no in-depth exploration of the psychological distance of climate change. This study uses a nationally representative British sample in order to systematically explore and characterize each of the four theorized dimensions of psychological distance--temporal, social, and geographical distance, and uncertainty--in relation to climate change. We examine how each of these different aspects of psychological distance relate to each other as well as to concerns about climate change and sustainable behavior intentions. Results indicate that climate change is both psychologically distant and proximal in relation to different dimensions. Lower psychological distance was generally associated with higher levels of concern, although perceived impacts on developing countries, as an indicator of social distance, was also significantly related to preparedness to act on climate change. Our findings clearly point to the utility of risk communication techniques designed to reduce psychological distance. However, highlighting the potentially very serious distant impacts of climate change may also be useful in promoting sustainable behavior, even among those already concerned.

The Effect of Construal Level on Intertemporal Choice and Risky Choice

It has been proved that there exist a number of similarities between intertemporal choice and risky choice.The similarities imply that some equal processes may be included in these two choices.Construal level theory(CLT) proposes a new explanation of these similarities.In CLT,time and probability are both dimensions of psychological distance,and are represented in similar ways(Trope Liberman,2003,2010).Distant or uncertain events are represented as high level construals,whereas near or certain events are represented as low level construals.As events become more distant or less certain,the high-level construals become more influential whereas the low-level construals become less influential in shaping preferences.Meanwhile,delay or probability is represented as low-level construal in valuation of delayed or risky choices,whereas the magnitude of money is represented as high-level construal(Sagristano,Trope, Liberman,2002;Trope Liberman,2003).The purpose of this paper is to shed some additional light on the underlying processes of intertemporal and risky choice by investigating the effects of construal-level mindsets on them.We hypothesize that construal-level mindsets have similar effects on intertemporal and risky choice because time and probability are represented in similar ways.As the magnitude of money(high-level construal) is more influential whereas time and probability(low-level construal) are less influential,participants with high-level mindsets might value delayed and risky money higher than those with low-level mindsets.Two experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis.In experiment 1,140 college students were procedurally primed to high or low level construal mindsets by considering questions related to "why" or "how" they engaged in certain actions,then some participants accomplished intertemporal choices(experiment 1a) and others made risky choices(experiment 1b).In experiment 2,139 college students were procedurally primed to high or low level construal mindsets by reacting to global letters or local letters,then accomplished intertemporal choices(experiment 2a) or risky choices(experiment 2b).The results indicate that participants with high level construal mindsets value delayed and risky money higher than those with low-level mindsets,both in experiment 1 and 2.These results are consistent with the hypothesis.The results may have some important implications.Firstly,time and probability are represented in a similar way,which can explain some parallels between intertemporal and risky choices,especially common difference effect and common ratio effect.Secondly,construal-level mindsets can affect intertemporal and risky choices,which reminds us to pay more attention to the influence of the decision context that may trigger different mindsets.Thirdly,construal-level mindsets can be triggered by both thought and visual perception,which gives additional evidence that the connection between psychological distances and construal levels could be activated automatically and implicitly.

You Can’t See Much in the Dark

This article investigates the interplay between darkness, construal level, and psychological distance based on the link between environmental lighting conditions and visual perception. In the dark, visual perception becomes less focused and detailed, leading to more abstract representations. We argue that this link between physical darkness and a global perceptual processing style spills over to the conceptual level. In three experiments, darkness triggered a more global perceptual and conceptual processing style than did brightness, regardless of whether the darkness was physically manipulated or primed. Additionally, two Implicit Association Tests (IATs) showed that darkness is more strongly associated with high-level construal than with low-level construal. Moreover, drawing on the generalized link between construal level and psychological distance, we proposed that darkness is also linked to perceived psychological distance because the lack of detail information and the abstract representations in the dark remove objects and other persons from people’s direct, detailed experience. Eight IATs confirmed the implicit link between darkness and four dimensions of psychological distance. These implications of these results are discussed with regard to thinking styles and social processes like stereotyping and cooperation.

Future altruism: Social discounting of delayed rewards

Social discounting assesses an individual's willingness to forgo an outcome for the self in lieu of a larger outcome for someone else. The purpose of the present research was to examine the effect of adding a common delay to outcomes in a binary choice, social discounting procedure. Based on the premise that both social and temporal distances are dimensions of psychological distance, we hypothesized that social discounting should decrease as a function of delay to the outcomes. Across two within-subject experiments, participants indicated preference between a hypothetical money reward for the self or for someone else. The outcomes were associated with no, short, and long delays. Both studies confirmed our hypothesis that adding any delay to the receipt of outcomes decreases social discounting, though no significant differences were observed between short and long delays. These results are discussed in the context of some existing literature on altruism.

Politeness and psychological distance: A construal level perspective.

According to politeness theory (P. Brown & S. Levinson, 1987), politeness serves to both reflect and regulate social distance. On the basis of this notion and on construal level theory (N. Liberman & Y. Trope, 2008; N. Liberman, Y. Trope, & E. Stephan, 2007), it was predicted that politeness would be related to abstract construal, temporal distance, and spatial distance. Eight studies supported this prediction. Politeness increased when the addressees were construed abstractly (Study 1), were temporally distant (Studies 2, 3), and were spatially distant (Study 4). It was also found that increasing politeness produced abstract construals (Study 5), greater temporal distance (Study 6), and greater spatial distance (Study 7, 8). These findings shed light on the way politeness operates in different cultures and is conveyed in different languages, and they support the idea that dimensions of psychological distance are interrelated.

Psychological distance asymmetry: The spatial dimension vs. other dimensions

In this research we demonstrate an asymmetry between the spatial dimension and the other three dimensions of psychological distance—i.e., the temporal, social, and hypothetical dimensions. The first study shows that a distal prime along the spatial dimension leads to greater perceived distance along the other three dimensions, but not the other way around. We theorize that this is because people understand temporal, social, and hypothetical distance in terms of spatial distance. Hence, symmetric priming effects should occur when similarities between the spatial dimension and other dimensions are highlighted. Indeed, the last three studies, using multiple operationalizations, show that such priming effects could become symmetric when people engage in relational processing.

Distance-dependent processing of pictures and words.

A series of 8 experiments investigated the association between pictorial and verbal representations and the psychological distance of the referent objects from the observer. The results showed that people better process pictures that represent proximal objects and words that represent distal objects than pictures that represent distal objects and words that represent proximal objects. These results were obtained with various psychological distance dimensions (spatial, temporal, and social), different tasks (classification and categorization), and different measures (speed of processing and selective attention). The authors argue that differences in the processing of pictures and words emanate from the physical similarity of pictures, but not words, to the referents. Consequently, perceptual analysis is commonly applied to pictures but not to words. Pictures thus impart a sense of closeness to the referent objects and are preferably used to represent such objects, whereas words do not convey proximity and are preferably used to represent distal objects in space, time, and social perspective.

Effects of Temporal and Social Distance on Consumer Evaluations: Table 1

This article investigates how two dimensions of psychological distance (i.e., temporal distance and social distance) jointly affect consumers' evaluations of products. Drawing on the properties of psychological distance and diminishing sensitivity to the increase in distance, we show an interaction effect of the two distance dimensions on product evaluations in two experiments. Specifically, when both dimensions are proximal, consumer evaluations are more influenced by the value associated with low-level construals than when either or both dimensions are distal, where consumer evaluations are more influenced by the value associated with high-level construals.

Construal Levels and Psychological Distance: Effects on Representation, Prediction, Evaluation, and Behavior

Construal level theory (CLT) is an account of how psychological distance influences individuals' thoughts and behavior. CLT assumes that people mentally construe objects that are psychologically near in terms of low-level, detailed, and contextualized features, whereas at a distance they construe the same objects or events in terms of high-level, abstract, and stable characteristics. Research has shown that different dimensions of psychological distance (time, space, social distance, and hypotheticality) affect mental construal and that these construals, in turn, guide prediction, evaluation, and behavior. The present paper reviews this research and its implications for consumer psychology.

Discounting of past outcomes.

Drug use, abuse, and addiction are common behavioral manifestations of impulsiveness. A useful and popular laboratory analogue of impulsiveness is temporal discounting. Temporal discounting refers to the reduction in the present, subjective value of outcomes that are temporally distant in the future. The extensive literature on temporal discounting indicates hyperbolic discounting, the magnitude effect, and the sign effect. It is possible that the same principles may apply to other dimensions of psychological distance, including past temporal distance. The purpose of the present study was to examine the possibility that outcomes in the past are discounted hyperbolically and at a similar rate to outcomes in the future. The magnitude and sign effects were also examined in past discounting. Indifference points of college students were determined from a paper-and-pencil questionnaire of future and past discounting. The results demonstrate that humans discount temporally distant past outcomes similarly to future outcomes. Discounting of the future and past are qualitatively and quantitatively similar; discounting of past outcomes is orderly, hyperbolic, and consistent with most empirical observations from studies of future discounting, including the magnitude and sign effects. The present study indicates that the discounting of past outcomes is a quantifiable phenomenon, and the results are similar to observations from the established future-discounting literature. Past discounting may be of use in the study of drug-dependent and other impulsive populations. Implications of a relationship between future and past discounting are discussed.