When physical closeness induces psychological distance: The effects of psychological ownership and contagion threat on social connectedness

Abstract

This research examines the effect of a contagion threat on consumers' social connectedness. Across two experiments, we show that when consumers are near others in public places during a pandemic (but not before or after), they psychologically distance themselves by perceiving lower social connectedness. This reduction in social connectedness is higher when consumers have more (vs. less) psychological ownership of the public place (Study 1). Further, the negative effect of psychological ownership on social connectedness found during (but not after) a pandemic is attenuated when consumers do not believe the disease is a severe threat to their own health (Study 2). We examine downstream effects by illustrating that both individual psychological ownership and social connectedness contribute to collective psychological ownership, which in turn enhances stewardship of the public place. The interacting effects of a contagion threat and psychological ownership on stewardship are not explained by territorial infringement, self‐esteem, perceived crowding, positive or negative affect, hope or nostalgia.

Travelers’ Psychological Ownership: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda

“…Psychological Closeness. Psychological closeness refers to the sense of attachment and connection with another entity (Kirk & Rifkin, 2022). According to psychological ownership theory (Pierce et al, 2001), a sense of ownership arises when travelers associate themselves with the target and have an intimate understanding of it (Joo, 2020).…”

“…,Comley (2011),Fortune et al (2021), J.,Kirk and Rifkin (2022), J Kumar and Nayak (2019),Kuo et al (2021),. W. S Lee et al (2013),.…”

A review and future avenues for psychological ownership in consumer research

“…shows that when people feel ownership of a public place, a contagion threat cue can reduce stewardship behaviors by decreasing the desire for social connectedness (Kirk & Rifkin, 2022).…”

“…Even children infer ownership from viewing stewardship behaviors (Cleroux et al, 2022). Other work shows that when people feel ownership of a public place, a contagion threat cue can reduce stewardship behaviors by decreasing the desire for social connectedness (Kirk & Rifkin, 2022).…”

Family Bonding in Confinement of the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

“…The confinement caused by the virus's contagion has had a significant impact on various aspects of global stability, including the economic situation. Considering the closure of small and medium-sized businesses, the reduction of employment and the time devoted to working, the unemployment rates among informal workers would have skyrocketed, resulting in increases in poverty, food insecurity, or decreases in family income, particularly among the most vulnerable groups (Lizondo-Valencia et al, 2021;Velasco, 2021) Social isolation and confinement work as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (Gonzalez-Bernal et al, 2021;Rodríguez-Fernández et al, 2021;Seo, 2021) and its variants, however it would have some effects, as mentioned above, but they would also have affected other areas, such as mental health, since individuals mention experiencing adverse effects on a psychological level (Martínez-Líbano, 2020;Martínez-Líbano & Yeomans Cabrera, 2021;Martínez-Libano & Yeomans, 2021), due directly to the conditions of this confinement, and also to the threat of contagion (Kirk & Rifkin, 2022); this impact can produce psychological and psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress (Ashby et al, 2022a;Nagarajan et al, 2022;Yunitri et al, 2022), depression, anxiety (Ashby et al, 2022b;Choi et al , 2020), frustration (Jayabalan, 2020;Muñoz-Fernández & Rodríguez-Meirinhos, 2021), panic disorders (Muñoz-Navarro et al, 2021;Nami et al, 2020) due to factors such as family separation (McAdams , 2021;Montauk & Kuhl, 2020), pain, grief, loneliness, shame, guilt, anger, fear, xenophobia, mass hysteria (Muorah, 2020;Whitehead & Whitehead, 2010), misinformation on social media (Buzzell, 2020;Tagliabue et al, 2020), financial insecurity (Cheng et al, 2021), stigmatization and other problems that would affect psychological well-being (Fernández-Abascal & Martín-Díaz, 2021;Nguyen et al,...…”