Psychological Distance Research Articles

Social Media, Psychological Distance, and Environmental Collective Action in Peru

This research aims to analyze the chain-mediated effect of the different types of psychological distances (social, temporal, spatial, and probability) and the variables of the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) on the relationship between the use of social media and violent environmental collective action. The study sample consisted of 650 university students ( M = 20.8, SD = 2.74) aged 18–35 years from Lima. Analyses were conducted by means of structural equation modeling (SEM) using the AMOS SPSS software, where a statistical model was performed for each type of psychological distance. The findings revealed two statistically significant paths that go from social media to violent environmental collective action, mediated, first, by each of the psychological distances and, second, by social identity and negative emotions (anger and fear). In addition, it was observed that only probability distance on its own acted as a mediator in the relationship between social media and violent environmental collective action. It was also observed that a path from social media to violent environmental collective action was mediated, first, by three types of distances (probability, spatial, and temporal) and, second, by participative efficacy.

Impact of tourism destination image on perceived usefulness of online reviews: Psychological distance effect and two methodologies

AbstractThis study aimed to empirically verify the impact of tourism destination image on perceived usefulness from the perspective of construal‐level theory. It also attempted to compare the results of the survey and data mining techniques regarding methodology. An online survey was initially conducted, and statistical analysis was performed using the R program. Concurrently, 25,952 reviews from TripAdvisor were gathered using a web crawler, Octoparse, and analyzed using the Tidyverse approach. The results indicated that, in the probabilistically distant group, affective destination image had a significant effect on perceived usefulness, whereas cognitive image did not affect perceived usefulness. Contrastingly, in the probabilistically close group, cognitive images had a stronger effect on perceived usefulness than affective images. Both the influential relationship between affective and cognitive images and the comparison of the two research methods were partially supported. These findings have theoretical and practical implications.

How tailored climate information affects attitudes towards climate policy and psychological distance of climate change

How does personally tailored climate impact information affect attitudes towards climate policy paths? We developed an online tool to depict the outcomes of downscaled climate models and a personalised vulnerability estimate. A survey representing Finnish public was conducted to find out the attitudes towards climate policies and psychological distance of climate change among different demographic groups before and after using the tool. We found that tailored information increases knowledge on climate impacts, but the effect on policy attitudes depends on demographic attributes (especially age and income) and related personal vulnerability. After using the tool, the respondents’ confidence in their knowledge increased and the potential of climate policies to alleviate changes in the environment was perceived as higher. Most respondents perceived climate impacts as spatially proximal, while temporally and socially there was more variation. For those with low vulnerability levels, climate impacts appeared as more distant after obtaining tailored information.

Managers, don't neglect your prospective employees to achieve your sustainability development goals

AbstractInstances of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) in popular media, coupled with its negative consequences behooves a systematic assessment of the consequences of CSI. This study responds to calls for such research. Specifically, drawing on attribution theory, we investigate the role of CSI on prospective employees' employment intention (EI) and negative word‐of‐mouth (NWOM) propensity and the role of other condemning moral emotions (OCME) in mediating the relationship between CSI and EI and NWOM propensity. In addition, drawing on construal level theory, we investigate if psychological distance moderates the relationship between CSI and OCME, and thereby, impacts the mediation from CSI to EI and NWOM propensity through OCME. Results indicate that CSI decreases EI and enhances NWOM propensity, and these relationships are mediated via OCME. PD enhances the effect of CSI on EI and NWOM propensity through OCME such that lower PD is associated with a lower EI and higher NWOM propensity.

If It Concerns Me: An Experimental Investigation of the Influence of Psychological Distance on the Acceptance of Autonomous Shuttle Buses

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will revolutionize our everyday mobility in the future. However, the prerequisite for this is that the technology is accepted by the population. Currently, AVs are still difficult to grasp for many people, i.e., the topic of autonomous driving is psychologically distant. In other contexts, it has been shown that this psychological distance or proximity can be used to influence product perception. However, the influence of psychological distance has never been investigated in the AV context. To address this research gap, we investigated the impact of psychological distance on the intention to use (ITU) AVs. We manipulated psychological distance in a 2x2x2 scenario-based experiment (N = 2114) on two different dimensions and additionally varied driving modality for comparison purposes: subjects either imagined themselves or an average person (social distance) using either a traditional or autonomous bus (driving modality) either today or in ten years (temporal distance). Our results showed a main effect of driving modality and social distance, with higher ITU for AVs and the average person. Temporal distance interacted with social distance to affect ITU. Interestingly, psychological distance also affected ITU for traditional buses with a similar interaction pattern. Thus, our study suggests that psychological distance affects the ITU of buses in general rather than AV technology. Providers can benefit from framing AVs as temporally close and providing as concrete, detailed information as possible. Future research should examine the underlying mechanisms (e.g., a shift in bus use priorities) that can explain why social distance plays an important role, particularly in future scenarios.

Enhancing consumer evaluation of new products: The role of innovation newness and communication strategy

This study investigates how the psychological distance associated with innovation newness interacts with the construal level of advertisement (ad) appeal to influence consumer product evaluations. We conduct three studies to demonstrate how to optimize consumer evaluations of incrementally new products (INPs) vs. radically new products (RNPs) by examining the moderating role of concrete attribute vs. abstract benefit appeals in advertising. Study 1 reveals that greater innovation newness increases the psychological distance toward new products. Study 2 demonstrates that attribute appeal is more effective when paired with INPs, low-level concrete construal, whereas benefit appeal is more effective when paired with RNPs, high-level abstract construal. This outcome is further mediated through processing fluency. Furthermore, Study 3 demonstrates that the matching principle applies to utilitarian products, but with hedonic products, abstract benefit appeal improves the evaluations of both INPs and RNPs.

Perception of hypotheticality in technology-based business ideas: effects on Opportunity Beliefs from a Construal Level Theory perspective.

This research investigates how entrepreneurs perceive the hypothetical nature of technologies (based on situations that are often imagined or theoretical) as a foundation for entrepreneurial endeavors and how this perception influences the formation of business Opportunity Beliefs. Drawing on the Construal Level Theory, we explore the relationship between the perceived hypotheticality of technologies and Opportunity Beliefs. Two experimental studies are conducted to examine these relationships, with Study 1 (n = 177 entrepreneurs) focusing on the perception of innovative technologies as more distant or hypothetical, and Study 2 (n = 404 entrepreneurs) delving into how the perceived distance to technology influences Opportunity Beliefs. The results indicate that entrepreneurs view more innovative technologies as more hypothetical and that hypotheticality mediates the relationship between the perceived degree of innovation and Opportunity Beliefs. We find evidence that Entrepreneurs tend to view the feasibility and fit/alignment of business opportunities more favorably when they perceive the psychological distance (hypotheticality) of the opportunity as closer rather than more distant. However, the difference this difference is nonsignificant in how they evaluate the desirability of the opportunity in any psychological distance. These results provide insight into the cognitive processes of entrepreneurs and offer implications for understanding how entrepreneurs perceive and evaluate business opportunities.

The power of memes: personification as a marker of psychological distance in memes about the war in Ukraine

Abstract Memes offer responsive acute commentary on controversial societal matters, providing non-violent and democratic spaces of discussion for conflicts. The paper studies memes on the war in Ukraine that spread in Eastern (Russia, Estonia, Belarus) and Western Europe (Spain). We analyze who are the main actors/characters that personify the war in the memes in these countries, how these characters are represented in memes, and what are the global and local aspects of their portrayal. Personification is seen as a marker for psychological distance of the meme-makers and sharers to the conflict.

Exploring the impact of nonverbal social behavior on learning outcomes in instructional video design

Online education has become increasingly popular in recent years, and video lectures have emerged as a common instructional format. While the importance of instructors’ nonverbal social cues such as gaze, facial expression, and gestures for learning progress in face-to-face teaching is well-established, their impact on instructional videos is not fully understood. Most studies on nonverbal social cues in instructional videos focus on isolated cues rather than considering multimodal nonverbal behavior patterns and their effects on the learning progress. This study examines the role of instructors’ nonverbal immediacy (a construct capturing multimodal nonverbal behaviors that reduce psychological distance) in video lectures with respect to learners’ cognitive, affective, and motivational outcomes. We carried out an eye-tracking experiment with 87 participants (Mage = 24.11, SD = 4.80). Results of multilevel path analyses indicate that high nonverbal immediacy substantially increases learners’ state motivation and enjoyment, but does not affect cognitive learning. Analyses of learners’ eye movements show that learners allocate more attention to the instructor than to the learning material with increasing levels of nonverbal immediacy displayed by the instructor. The study highlights the importance of considering the role of multimodal nonverbal behavior patterns in online education and provides insights for effective video lecture design.

Morality in the anthropocene: The perversion of compassion and punishment in the online world.

Although much of human morality evolved in an environment of small group living, almost 6 billion people use the internet in the modern era. We argue that the technological transformation has created an entirely new ecosystem that is often mismatched with our evolved adaptations for social living. We discuss how evolved responses to moral transgressions, such as compassion for victims of transgressions and punishment of transgressors, are disrupted by two main features of the online context. First, the scale of the internet exposes us to an unnaturally large quantity of extreme moral content, causing compassion fatigue and increasing public shaming. Second, the physical and psychological distance between moral actors online can lead to ineffective collective action and virtue signaling. We discuss practical implications of these mismatches and suggest directions for future research on morality in the internet era.

농촌관광 제약요인에 따른 MZ세대 관광자 세분화 연구

This study aimed to identify tourism constraints that generation MZ (Millenials and Generation Z) experiences regarding rural tourism and to explore differences and among clusters based on these constraints. A total of 284 valid responses were used for a two-step clustering process which involved hierarchical cluster analysis to determine the number of clusters and non-hierarchical cluster analysis to determine the clusters. As a result, generation MZ was found to have a lack of interest, environmental discomfort, psychological discomfort, lack of time and financial resources, and peer influence regarding rural tourism. Based on these factors, three distinct groups were identified: the environmentally constrained group, the minimally constrained group, and the multi-constrained group. The environmentally constrained group consists of individuals who frequently engage in domestic travel but have limited experience in rural tourism. This group showed high intentions for tourism and word-of-mouth(WOM) recommendations. On the other hand, the minimally constrained segment had significantly more experience with rural tourism and preferred traveling with family or relatives. Lastly, the multi-constraint segment comprised over half of the respondents, who had no prior experience with rural tourism. They exhibited significant psychological distance from rural areas and demonstrated low behavioral intentions. This study addressed the limitations of previous studies and policies that presuppose generation MZ as a single group, and provided implications for revitalizing rural tourism through an in-depth understanding of the factors that may negatively affect generation MZ.

Closing the Gap: How Psychological Distance Influences Willingness to Engage in Risky COVID Behavior.

Pandemics, and other risk-related contexts, require dynamic changes in behavior as situations develop. Human behavior is influenced by both explicit (cognitive) and implicit (intuitive) factors. In this study, we used psychological distance as a lens to understand what influences our decision-making with regard to risk in the context of COVID-19. This study was based on the rationale that our relational needs are more concrete to us than the risk of the virus. First, we explored the impact of social-psychological distance on participants' risk perceptions and behavioral willingness. As hypothesized, we found that close social relationships of agents promoted willingness to engage in risky behavior. In the second phase, we tested an intervention designed to increase the concreteness of information about virus transmission as a mechanism to mitigate the bias of social influence. We found that the concreteness intervention resulted in significantly reduced willingness to engage in risky behavior. As such, communications aimed at changing the behavior of citizens during times of increased risk or danger should consider conceptually concrete messaging when communicating complex risk, and hence may provide a valuable tool in promoting health-related behavior.

Multi-decadal climate services help farmers assess and manage future risks

Climate services can support on-farm decisions, yet this potential is currently not fully realized. Here, using a participatory qualitative risk analysis framework, we introduced 24 Australian farmers to My Climate View, an Australian online, multi-decadal climate service, and asked them to identify, assess and discuss management of long-term risks in light of its projections. We found that multi-decadal projections can help farmers to better understand future climate risks, potentially reducing the psychological distance of climate change. The use of long-term climate projections, however, can be impeded by lack of confidence in data, so leveraging the expertise of trusted service providers may help boost farmers’ confidence. Finally, though climate services providing multi-decadal projections can help farmers to identify future climate risks, they require interactive and recurring engagement to turn awareness into action.

A little humor goes a long way? The influence of humor on offer acceptance in one-shot online negotiations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether the use of humor in one-shot online negotiations affects the chance that the target of the humor will accept the offer. This study/paper proposes two competing hypotheses in this specific context: humor could be perceived as impertinent and thus decrease offer acceptance, or it could be perceived as friendly and thus increase offer acceptance.Design/methodology/approachTo test these hypotheses, this study/paper conducted an experimental scenario study among 589 participants in a negotiation about selling a wardrobe on an online marketplace. Participants took the perspective of the seller, and this study/paper compared a condition in which the buyer used a joke versus a condition in which the buyer did not use a joke.FindingsThe use of humor by a buyer significantly increased the chance of offer acceptance by the seller. Without humor, 62% of sellers accepted the buyer’s offer. With humor, 82% of sellers accepted the offer. Further analysis suggests this is explained by the buyer being perceived as friendlier in the humor condition relative to the no humor condition. There were no effects on perceptions of buyer’s impertinence.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that humor is beneficial for buyers in a one-shot online negotiation. On the flipside, this implies that sellers should be cautious about being manipulated into accepting inferior deals by buyers who use humor in one-shot online negotiations.Originality/valueThe significant increase in the number of transactions on online marketplaces (such as AliExpress or eBay) justifies having a fresh look at the role of humor in one-shot online negotiations that are at the core of such transactions. Research in this domain is relatively scarce. In particular, there is no study that specifically tests whether humor is beneficial or detrimental in one-shot online negotiations. This study/paper extends the existing literature to the area of one-shot online interactions characterized by psychological distance.

Reliability and Exploratory Factor Analysis of a Measure of the Psychological Distance from Climate Change

Psychological distance from climate change has emerged as an important construct in understanding sustainable behavior and attempts to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change. Yet, few measures exist to assess this construct and little is known about the properties of the existing measures. In this article, the author conducted two studies of a psychological distance measure developed by Wang and her colleagues. In Study 1, the author assessed the test–retest reliability of the measure over a two-week interval and found the scores to be acceptably stable over time. In Study 2, the author conducted two exploratory factor analyses, using different approaches to the correlation and factor extraction. Similar results were observed for each factor analysis: one factor was related to items that specified greater psychological distance from climate change; a second factor involved items that specified closeness to climate change; and a third involved the geographic/spatial distance from climate change. The author discussed the results and provided recommendations on ways that the measure may be used to research the construct of psychological distance from climate change.

Investigating the use of protective technologies after data breach: The roles of psychological distance, technological service type and organizational justice

Protective information technologies (PITs) are crucial for preventing security and privacy issues, but their application by customers following a data breach has not been thoroughly studied in the past. In this work, we define post-data breach protective technologies (PDPT), an initiative-taking protective technology, as the use of PIT in the aftermath of a data breach. Based on the kinds of services violated, we hypothesize that users' psychological understanding of protective technology and the organization's justice procedures affect victims' intent to use PDPT. We validate two theoretical hypotheses for PDPT adoption by utilizing survey responses from consumers across utility-benefit and social-benefit services after data breaches. For practice, our research provides guidance for planning and encouraging the implementation of protective technology in the wake of a privacy crisis or data breach. In general, we draw the conclusion that a data breach tends to heighten the victims’ awareness of the breach, impact justice perceptions, and alter the distant psychological knowledge about the service benefits of protective technologies post data breach.

Remote work arrangement: a blessing in disguise for socially anxious individuals.

This research examines the link between social anxiety disorder (SAD), psychological distance (PD), and burnout using survey data from 463 software development workers who are currently working remotely. According to the results of the study, SAD was associated with higher PD, but, in contrast to what had been shown in earlier studies, this higher PD had no effect on the participants' reported levels of burnout. Both psychological safety and workplace attachment orientation (WAO) were tested for their moderating effects in this study. According to the study's findings, the link between SAD and PD was moderated by WAO but not by psychological safety. The findings of this study underscore the importance of conducting additional research on the challenges faced by people with social anxiety in the workplace and the steps that can be taken by employers to better accommodate them.

The moderating role of psychological power distance on the relationship between destructive leadership and emotional exhaustion

Destructive leadership, a prevalent negative behavior in modern organizations, continues to captivate the interest of scholars and professionals due to its detrimental aftermath. Drawing from social psychological (culture) and conservation of resources theory, we explore the moderating impact of psychological power distance on the link between destructive leadership and emotional exhaustion. The main contribution of this study is that it has created new information about the moderating role of some specific sub-dimensions of psychological power distance (e.g., hierarchy, prestige) in the relationship between destructive leadership and emotional exhaustion. Our findings also reveal a positive correlation between a destructive leadership style and emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, the prestige aspect of psychological power distance amplifies the influence of deficient leadership abilities and unethical conduct on emotional exhaustion. Notably, our study highlights that in the Turkish context, characterized by high power distance, and escalating hierarchies the impact of nepotism disparities on emotional exhaustion. In conclusion, these novel insights underscore a significant research avenue regarding cultural facets.

The pursuit of the ideal self: An investigation of the relationship of authenticity and ideal self‐congruence

The pursuit of the ideal self: An investigation of the relationship of authenticity and ideal self‐congruence

The effect of green influencer message characteristics: Framing, construal, and timing

AbstractThis research explores the characteristics of green influencer messages on follower engagement by examining the interplay between message framing (gain vs. loss), construal level (high vs. low), and post timing (weekdays vs. weekends). Green influencers (also: greenfluencers or sustainable influencers) are considered a key agent for a change to more sustainable consumption. A pilot field study of 1000 green influencers, however, indicates that the current communication practices of green influencers (which strongly focus on gain frames, low construal, and posts during the week) are not ideal for maximizing engagement and sustainable behavioral intentions. Two experiments replicate this finding and establish the process through which green influencer posts affect engagement: gain frames increase fluency, which increases engagement; low construal levels decrease psychological distance, which increases engagement. Timing moderates these processes in that weekend posts increase the engagement with gain frames and week posts increase the engagement with low‐construal frames. These findings highlight that there is no silver bullet in green influencer messages, but that green influencers need to adapt the framing and construal of their messages to the posts' timing to increase their contribution to more sustainable lifestyles and the greater good.