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Traversing psychological distance.

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Traversing psychological distance, including temporal, spatial, and social factors, relies on abstraction. This mental process influences prediction, choice, and self-control, suggesting distance traversal may be a general cognitive ability.

Keywords:
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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Traversing psychological distance moves beyond immediate experience.
  • This involves planning, perspective-taking, and counterfactual thinking.
  • Temporal, spatial, social distances, and hypotheticality are interconnected.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To define abstraction as forming beliefs about object substitutability for specific purposes.
  • To explore the relationship between abstraction and psychological distancing.
  • To examine the implications of this relationship for various cognitive and behavioral domains.

Main Methods:

  • The study defines abstraction and its role in psychological distancing.
  • It reviews existing literature on how abstract constructs are used for distal objects.
  • It discusses the implications for prediction, choice, communication, negotiation, and self-control.

Main Results:

  • Abstraction is identified as a core mechanism for traversing all forms of psychological distance.
  • A consistent pattern shows more abstract constructs are used for more distant objects.
  • Psychological distance and abstraction are shown to be interrelated cognitive processes.

Conclusions:

  • Traversing psychological distance is linked to the use of abstraction.
  • The findings suggest that traversing distance might be a general mental ability.
  • The study questions whether psychological distance should replace expectancy in expected-utility theories.