Psychological distance

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]

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.