Psychological distance towards COVID-19: Geographical and hypothetical distance predict attitudes and mediate knowledge

Abstract

While different antecedents have been examined to explain peoples’ reactions towards COVID-19, there is only scarce understanding about the role of the subjective closeness and distance to the pandemic. Within the current study, we applied the concept of psychological distance to understand the distance towards COVID-19 and investigated its (1) connection with preventive attitudes and proactive behaviors, (2) context-specific antecedents, and its (3) mediating effect of knowledge on attitudes. Using an online sample from a German quantitative cross-sectional study (N = 395, M = 32.2 years, SD = 13.9 years, 64.3% female) in July 2020, a time with a general low incidence of people infected with Sars-CoV2, we measured relevant socio-psychological constructs addressing COVID-19 and included further information from external sources. Based on a path model, we found geographical distance as a significant predictor of cognitive attitudes towards COVID-19. Furthermore, hypothetical distance (i.e., feeling to be likely affected by COVID-19) predicted not only participants’ affective, cognitive, and behavioral attitudes, but also the installation of a corona warning-app. While several variables affected the different dimensions of psychological distance, hypothetical and geographical distance mediated the effect of knowledge on attitudes. These results underline the role of geographical and hypothetical distance for health-related behaviors and education. For example, people will only comply with preventive measures if they feel geographically concerned by the disease, which is particularly challenging for fast-spreading global diseases such as COVID-19. Therefore, there is a need to clearly communicate the personal risks of diseases and address peoples’ hypothetical distance.

Comparisons of Dementia Knowledge and Attitudes among the Youth and Older Adults: Insights from the Construal Level Theory Perspective

“…For example, two experiments with a U.S. national opportunity sample found hazard proximity increased psychological proximity, weakly enhanced personal risk judgments concerning Zika transmission, and increased intentions of mosquito control [ 26 ]. Blauza et al [ 18 ] found hypothetical distance (i.e., feeling to be likely affected by COVID-19) predicted participants’ affective, cognitive, and behavioral attitudes towards COVID-19. In another study, White et al [ 27 ] showed psychological proximity increased the willingness for conforming to protective behaviors (i.e., paying for vaccines).…”

“…The basic assumption of CLT is that people’s interpretation of an object or event relies on their psychological distance to the object or event, which means different psychological distances may lead to different perceptions and intentions towards one thing. Previous studies applied this theory to understand people’s perceptions and actions towards climate change, health-risk behavioral intentions, and knowledge and attitudes towards COVID-19 [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Since age is one of the dominant risk factors for dementia, the disease seems to be far away from younger people but closer to the older ones.…”

Indonesian Ulema Council Fatwa on Religious Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Investigation of Muslim Attitudes and Practices

“…These results are similar to research on COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and prevention practices in China (Zhong et al, 2020 ). Blauza et al ( 2021 ) state that different dimensions of psychological distance, hypothetical and geographical length, mediate the effect of knowledge on attitudes. For example, people will only comply with preventive measures if they are concerned geographically with the disease.…”

The relationship between a health communication podcast and audience engagement: A social media case study

“…This became particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, as different containment measures were locally implemented (Table 1). While many countries adopted preventive measures, the adherence to these policies depended on the publics' adherence to these measures, which is affected by different factors such as attitudes, knowledge, risk assessment, or ideology (Bavel et al, 2020;Blauza et al, 2021). These factors are often constituted by discussions in social media comments (Tsao et al, 2021).…”