Zooming Out: The Impact of Distance on our Decisions

Indeed, once space travel began, astronauts commonly reported having self-transcendent experiences upon seeing Earth from an entirely new vantage point. The feelings of awe, increased self-awareness, and the new perspectives of the world that astronauts gained after looking down at our planet from space became known as the “overview effect.”¹

While most of us are unlikely to ever have the same view as an astronaut in space, distance does influence our judgment. Researchers across several fields have found that manipulating distance significantly influences how we make decisions.

The underlying explanation for this phenomenon is known as construal level theory. Essentially, our change in preferences often reflects a movement in psychological distance.^2,3,4,5 Psychological distance can be temporal (future or current), spatial, social, or hypothetical.

The reason this occurs is because of “grounded cognition,” or the way that bodily states generate cognitive states. While we often use physical dimensions and qualities as metaphors to describe the world around us—for instance, “down” implies sadness while “up” implies happiness; “hot” implies closeness while “cold” implies distance—research suggests these states also influence how we process information.⁶

Several studies show an effect of construal on our decision-making in a wide variety of contexts. This article takes a look at the importance of psychological distance in just a few of these domains, from the products we purchase to the way we approach vaccination.