Skip to main content

From Time Perspective to Psychological Distance (and Back)

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Time Perspective Theory; Review, Research and Application

Abstract

People mentally traverse psychological distance whenever they contemplate the past or the future, other places, other people, or unlikely events. As a result, these four routes away from one’s immediate experience share important commonalities. After summarizing research on how and why people traverse distance, we next incorporate issues related to time perspective in considering who might prove more disposed to mental travel in the first place and what types of people might traverse distance more successfully than others. Throughout, we highlight the potential of these two psychological frameworks to inform one another, generating novel hypotheses with the potential to advance our understanding of the role of time in human thought.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.zimbardo.com/downloads/Phils%20Retirement%20Speech.pdf

References

  • Bar-Anan, Y., Liberman, N., Trope, Y., & Algom, D. (2007). Automatic processing of psychological distance: Evidence from a Stroop task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136(4), 610–622.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boroditsky, L. (2000). Metaphoric structuring: Understanding time through spatial metaphors. Cognition, 75(1), 1–28.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers, J. R., Windschitl, P. D., & Suls, J. (2003). Egocentrism, event frequency, and comparative optimism: When what happens frequently is “more likely to happen to me”. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(11), 1343–1356.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Epel, E. S., Bandura, A., & Zimbardo, P. G. (1999). Escaping homelessness: The influences of self‐efficacy and time perspective on coping with homelessness. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29(3), 575–596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiedler, K., Jung, J., Wänke, M., & Alexopoulos, T. (2012). 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Förster, J., Friedman, R. S., & Liberman, N. (2004). Temporal construal effects on abstract and concrete thinking: Consequences for insight and creative cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(2), 177–189.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frederick, S., Loewenstein, G., & O’Donoghue, T. (2002). Time discounting and time preference: A critical review. Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), 351–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freitas, A. L., Salovey, P., & Liberman, N. (2001). Abstract and concrete self-evaluative goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(3), 410–424.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fujita, K., Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Levin-Sagi, M. (2006). Construal levels and self-control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(3), 351–367.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Green, L., & Myerson, J. (2004). A discounting framework for choice with delayed and probabilistic rewards. Psychological Bulletin, 130(5), 769–792.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harber, K. D., Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (2003). Participant self-selection biases as a function of individual differences in time perspective. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 25(3), 255–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Karpen, S. C. (2009). Lessons from a Faraway land: The effect of spatial distance on creative cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(5), 1127–1131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, B., & Rachlin, H. (2006). Social discounting. Psychological Science, 17(4), 283–286.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kruger, J., & Burrus, J. (2004). Egocentrism and focalism in unrealistic optimism (and pessimism). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(3), 332–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2008). The psychology of transcending the here and now. Science, 322, 1201–1205.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liberman, N., Polack, O., Hameiri, B., & Blumenfeld, M. (2012). Priming of spatial distance enhances children’s creative performance. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111(4), 663–670.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maddux, W. W., & Galinsky, A. D. (2009). Cultural borders and mental barriers: The relationship between living abroad and creativity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1047–1061.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maglio, S. J., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2013). Distance from a distance: Psychological distance reduces sensitivity to any further psychological distance. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 142(3), 644–657.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Polman, E., & Emich, K. J. (2011). Decisions for others are more creative than decisions for the self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(4), 492–501.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singelis, T. M. (1994). The measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20(5), 580–591.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephan, E., Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2010). Politeness and psychological distance: A construal level perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(2), 268–280.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stephan, E., Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2011). The effects of time perspective and level of construal on social distance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 397–402.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thaler, R. H. (1981). Some empirical evidence on dynamic inconsistency. Economic Letters, 8, 201–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117(2), 440–463.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Boven, L., Kane, J., McGraw, A., & Dale, J. (2010). Feeling close: Emotional intensity reduces perceived psychological distance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(6), 872–885.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wakslak, C. J. (2012). The where and when of likely and unlikely events. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 117, 150–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wakslak, C. J., Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Alony, R. (2006). Seeing the forest when entry is unlikely: Probability and the mental representation of events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135, 641–653.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zauberman, G., Kim, B. K., Malkoc, S. A., & Bettman, J. R. (2009). Discounting time and time discounting: Subjective time perception and intertemporal preferences. Journal of Marketing Research, 46(4), 543–556.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, M., & Xie, J. (2011). Effects of social and temporal distance on consumers’ responses to peer recommendations. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(3), 486–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (1999). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1271–1288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sam J. Maglio .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Maglio, S.J., Trope, Y., Liberman, N. (2015). From Time Perspective to Psychological Distance (and Back). In: Stolarski, M., Fieulaine, N., van Beek, W. (eds) Time Perspective Theory; Review, Research and Application. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07368-2_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics