Psychological distance

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Psychological distance is the degree to which people feel removed from a phenomenon. Distance in this case is not limited to the physical surroundings, rather it could also be abstract. Distance can be defined as the separation between the self and other instances like persons, events, knowledge, or time. [1] Psychological distance was first defined in Trope and Liberman's Construal Level Theory (CLT). [2] However, Trope and Liberman only identified temporal distance as a separator. This has since been revised to include four categories of distance: spatial, social, hypothetical, and informational distances. Further studies have concluded that all four are strongly and systemically correlated with each other. [3]

Contents

At a basic level, psychological distance in Construal Level Theory notes that distance plays a pivotal role in the relationship between an event and a person. The distance factor will help determine the outcome of whether or not a person places value on a specific topic. The relationship between someone and an event, in regard to psychological distance, is such that the greater the distance between the self and an event, the lower the mental perception of importance is for the person. Following this example, the less important an event is perceived, the less likely one is to act on it. This psychological distance causes behavioral differences, or non-existence of certain behaviors or attitudes all together, that alter one's response to an event by changing the perception of its importance in one's mind.

Psychological distance is fundamentally egocentric, [4] the anchor point is the self, in the present, and the different interactions of the self with an object or event correlate to the different levels of distance.

Psychological distance in environmental issues

Oftentimes, psychologically distant things are those that are not present or experienced frequently in everyday life. [5] As noted above, this can be due to a variety of factors. Whether the distance is due to a lack of exposure, a lack of knowledge, a temporal difference, or being physically separated, all four create a distance that in some way limits exposure or frequency. This phenomenon is prevalent in many environmental issues such as climate change and its effects. Data has shown that the earth's average temperature has been steadily increasing over the last few hundred years. This directly correlates with higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere as a result of anthropogenic activities, starting around the industrial revolution (1740), that emit CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). Countries closer in proximity to the issue tend to place a higher level of importance on an issue as opposed to countries that are farther in proximity. While all regions/countries are affected by environmental issues, certain areas of the world feel these effects significantly more than others. This difference between the effects on certain areas of the world are key to understanding the role of psychological distance in environmental issues. Construal Level Theory concludes there is an inverse relationship between affected parties/exposure and psychological distance. In accordance with this theory, many areas of the world, such as the United States, are historically lacking on the world stage when it comes to environmental policy making in regards to other areas of the world such as Europe as a result of the country's general perceptions on environmental issues.

Reasons for different levels of psychological distance in certain parts of the world

Several studies have concluded that public concern regarding climate change and environmental issues decreases as one's perceived psychological distance from the issue increases. [6] According to the construal level theory (CLT), psychological distance from an event, issue or object is directly linked to the way that an individual or group of people mentally represent it. [7] More specifically, issues or objects that are perceived as psychologically close are perceived in a “concrete” manner, meaning that a specific representation of those issues is generated. On the other hand, objects or events that are perceived as psychologically distant are perceived in an “abstract” manner, meaning that the cognitive representation of that issue is perceived in a broader sense. [6]

This abstract contextualization of climate change as a slow, gradual modification to our current climate conditions makes it difficult to assess and understand the severity of climate change as a personal experience. [8] Climate-related risk awareness has been positively linked with the perception of the severity of the global issue of climate change as well as the risk of negative effects that climate change can pose to an individual. [8] According to Social Representations Theory (SRT), individuals apprehend unfamiliar risks (such as climate change) through symbols and iconic images that are presented in a socio-cultural context. SRT further demonstrates the way in which risk representations of climate change contrast globally and are mainly shaped by the local environment of an individual or group of people. [8]

Compared to other issues pertaining to global society, the importance and awareness of climate change is low, which is likely due to the widespread perception that the risk associated with climate change to an individual is distant in space and time. For example, these issues of climate change are affecting areas that are distant, such as other countries or continents (space), or that only future generations will be affected (time). [8] The phenomenon of psychological distance then decreases the public's ability to address and mitigate the effects of climate change. [8]

Reducing psychological distance

Public perception of climate change as a distant issue may threaten climate action. If the public's perception of their relative distance to climate change is driven by a construal level process, then the level at which the public construes climate change is an important determinant of their support for climate action. [6] For example, an abstract construal level will likely lead to climate change being perceived as psychologically distant, which may result in dissension of the problem and unwillingness to tackle the issue. [6] Conversely, a concrete construal is likely to lead to acceptance of climate change by the public through promoting a psychologically close view, which could result in a higher level of willingness to address climate change since the consequences of the issue or more tangible. [6] Making the issue of climate change more localized, more relevant and more urgent will help to reduce the estrangement by people and help to increase pro-environmental behaviors. [8]

Notably, CLT indicates that psychological distance is essential when promoting action. [7] According to Goal Setting Theory, which was proposed by Locke and Latham in the 1990s, goals that are specific in nature are found to lead to a higher rate of task performance by reducing ambiguity about what stands to be accomplished or attained. [9] Goals are thought to affect the performance of proposed tasks through four mechanisms. These mechanisms include: 1) directing attention towards actions that are relevant to the goal or task, 2) providing motivation to increase efforts, 3) increasing persistence, and 4) promoting the activation of knowledge on the issue at hand to better motivate and strategize to achieve the goal. [7]

In terms of psychological distancing, the concept of goal setting theory would suggest that in order to counteract climate change, specific goals and/or policies that clearly state actions needed to be taken by governments, companies, the public, individuals, etc., would create a more concrete construal for the public, despite their psychological distance. This would in turn, lead to more successful mitigation of climate change.

Related Research Articles

In sociology, social distance describes the distance between individuals or social groups in society, including dimensions such as social class, race/ethnicity, gender or sexuality. Members of different groups mix less than members of the same group. It is the measure of nearness or intimacy that an individual or group feels towards another individual or group in a social network or the level of trust one group has for another and the extent of perceived likeness of beliefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attitude (psychology)</span> Psychological construct, a mental and emotional entity that inheres in, or characterizes a person

In psychology, attitude is a psychological construct that is a mental and emotional entity that inheres or characterizes a person, their attitude to approach to something, or their personal view on it. Attitude involves their mindset, outlook and feelings. Attitudes are complex and are an acquired state through life experience. Attitude is an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value and it is precipitated through a responsive expression towards oneself, a person, place, thing, or event which in turn influences the individual's thought and action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Ross</span> American academic (1942–2021)

Lee David Ross was a Canadian-American professor. He held the title of the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University and was an influential social psychologist who studied attributional biases, shortcomings in judgment and decision making, and barriers to conflict resolution, often with longtime collaborator Mark Lepper. Ross was known for his identification and explication of the fundamental attribution error and for the demonstration and analysis of other phenomena and shortcomings that have become standard topics in textbooks and in some cases, even popular media. His interests included ongoing societal problems, in particular protracted inter-group conflicts, the individual and collective rationalization of evil, and the psychological processes that make it difficult to confront societal challenges. Ross went beyond the laboratory to involve himself in conflict resolution and public peace processes in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and other areas of the world.

Self-control, an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. As an executive function, it is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one's behavior in order to achieve specific goals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Risk perception</span>

Risk perception is the subjective judgement that people make about the characteristics and severity of a risk. Risk perceptions are different for the real risks since they are affected by a wide range of affective, cognitive, contextual, and individual factors. Several theories have been proposed to explain why different people make different estimates of the dangerousness of risks. Three major families of theory have been developed: psychology approaches, anthropology/sociology approaches and interdisciplinary approaches.

Speech perception is the process by which the sounds of language are heard, interpreted, and understood. The study of speech perception is closely linked to the fields of phonology and phonetics in linguistics and cognitive psychology and perception in psychology. Research in speech perception seeks to understand how human listeners recognize speech sounds and use this information to understand spoken language. Speech perception research has applications in building computer systems that can recognize speech, in improving speech recognition for hearing- and language-impaired listeners, and in foreign-language teaching.

Attribution is a term used in psychology which deals with how individuals perceive the causes of everyday experience, as being either external or internal. Models to explain this process are called attribution theory. Psychological research into attribution began with the work of Fritz Heider in the early 20th century, and the theory was further advanced by Harold Kelley and Bernard Weiner. Heider first introduced the concept of perceived 'locus of causality' to define the perception of one's environment. For instance, an experience may be perceived as being caused by factors outside the person's control (external) or it may be perceived as the person's own doing (internal). These initial perceptions are called attributions. Psychologists use these attributions to better understand an individual's motivation and competence. The theory is of particular interest to employers who use it to increase worker motivation, goal orientation, and productivity.

In the social sciences, framing comprises a set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies organize, perceive, and communicate about reality.

In social psychology, a construal is a way that people perceive, comprehend, and interpret their world, particularly the acts of others toward them.

Distancing is a concept arising from the work of developmental psychologists Heinz Werner and Bernard Kaplan. Distancing describes the process by which psychologists help a person establish their own individuality through understanding their separateness from everything around them. This understanding of one's identity is considered an essential phase in coming to terms with symbols, which in turn forms the foundation for full cognition and language. Recently, work has been done in psychological distancing in terms of development, personality and behavior.

Self-enhancement is a type of motivation that works to make people feel good about themselves and to maintain self-esteem. This motive becomes especially prominent in situations of threat, failure or blows to one's self-esteem. Self-enhancement involves a preference for positive over negative self-views. It is one of the three self-evaluation motives along with self-assessment and self-verification . Self-evaluation motives drive the process of self-regulation, that is, how people control and direct their own actions.

Fear appeal is a term used in psychology, sociology and marketing. It generally describes a strategy for motivating people to take a particular action, endorse a particular policy, or buy a particular product, by arousing fear. A well-known example in television advertising was a commercial employing the musical jingle: "Never pick up a stranger, pick up Prestone anti-freeze." This was accompanied by images of shadowy strangers (hitchhikers) who would presumably do one harm if picked up. The commercial's main appeal was not to the positive features of Prestone anti-freeze, but to the fear of what a "strange" brand might do.

The motor theory of speech perception is the hypothesis that people perceive spoken words by identifying the vocal tract gestures with which they are pronounced rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates. It originally claimed that speech perception is done through a specialized module that is innate and human-specific. Though the idea of a module has been qualified in more recent versions of the theory, the idea remains that the role of the speech motor system is not only to produce speech articulations but also to detect them.

Construal level theory (CLT) is a theory in social psychology that describes the relation between psychological distance and the extent to which people's thinking is abstract or concrete. The core idea of CLT is that the more distant an object is from the individual, the more abstract it will be thought of, while the closer the object is, the more concretely it will be thought of. In CLT, psychological distance is defined on several dimensions—temporal, spatial, social and hypothetical distance being considered most important, though there is some debate among social psychologists about further dimensions like informational, experiential or affective distance. The theory was developed by the Israeli social psychologists Nira Liberman and the American psychologist Yaacov Trope.

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References

  1. ↑ Baltatescu, Sergiu (2014), "Psychological Distance", in Michalos, Alex C. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 5145–5146, doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2306, ISBN   978-94-007-0753-5 , retrieved 2021-04-23
  2. ↑ Trope, Yaacov; Liberman, Nira (April 2010). "Construal-Level Theory of Psychological Distance". Psychological Review. 117 (2): 440–463. doi:10.1037/a0018963. ISSN   0033-295X. PMC   3152826 . PMID   20438233.
  3. ↑ Fiedler, Klaus; Jung, Janis; Wänke, Michaela; Alexopoulos, Theodore (2012-09-01). "On the relations between distinct aspects of psychological distance: An ecological basis of construal-level theory". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 48 (5): 1014–1021. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.03.013. ISSN   0022-1031.
  4. ↑ Trope, Y.; Liberman, N. (2010). "APA PsycNet". Psychological Review. 117 (2): 440–463. doi:10.1037/a0018963. PMC   3152826 . PMID   20438233.
  5. ↑ Liberman, N.; Trope; Stephan (2007). Psychological distance. The Guilford Press. pp. 353–381.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Wang, Susie; Hurlstone, Mark J.; Leviston, Zoe; Walker, Iain; Lawrence, Carmen (2019). "Climate Change From a Distance: An Analysis of Construal Level and Psychological Distance From Climate Change". Frontiers in Psychology. 10: 230. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00230 . ISSN   1664-1078. PMC   6395381 . PMID   30853924.
  7. 1 2 3 Spence, Alexa; Poortinga, Wouter; Pidgeon, Nick (2012). "The Psychological Distance of Climate Change". Risk Analysis. 32 (6): 957–972. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2011.01695.x. ISSN   1539-6924. PMID   21992607. S2CID   31588640.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chen, Mei-Fang (2020-01-01). "Effects of psychological distance perception and psychological factors on pro-environmental behaviors in Taiwan: Application of construal level theory". International Sociology. 35 (1): 70–89. doi:10.1177/0268580919881870. ISSN   0268-5809. S2CID   214332051.
  9. ↑ Locke, E. A.; Latham, G. P. (2002). "APA PsycNet". The American Psychologist. 57 (9): 705–717. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.57.9.705. PMID   12237980 . Retrieved 2021-04-23.
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