Abstract
Psychological causes of social distance were examined from the perspective of Construal Level Theory (CLT; Liberman, Trope, & Stephan, 2007), which predicts that temporal distance from and abstract construal of a social target would create perception of social distance. Our studies demonstrate that expectations for temporally remote (versus proximal) social interaction produce greater social distance from a target person, measured as reduced familiarity (Study 1) and as reduced similarity to the self (Study 2). We also show that a more abstract, higher level construal of a social target results in less familiarity (Study 3) and in less allocation of resources (Study 4). The research sheds light on how social closeness can be promoted or hindered by previously unaddressed psychological factors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 397-402 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Mar 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank Yael Biran and Hadar Hershkovitz for data collection. The research reported in this paper was supported by a US–Israel Binational Science Foundation grant #2007247 .
Funding
The authors would like to thank Yael Biran and Hadar Hershkovitz for data collection. The research reported in this paper was supported by a US–Israel Binational Science Foundation grant #2007247 .
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation | 2007247 |
Keywords
- Level of construal
- Social distance
- Temporal perspective