The article gives new insights on the four dimensions of psychological distance
In the awarded paper, Sabrina Lucke and Jörg Königstorfer stress the importance of supporting charities in the areas of environment and health from both a societal and a managerial perspective.
The study
The study argues that the mental representations of distance (vs. closeness) – a concept called psychological distance – affects consumers’ preferences to donate to social charities. Such representations can relate to places (i.e., supporting a local vs. distant cause) and people (i.e., supporting people like oneself vs. people unlike oneself), for example.
Psychological distance (vs. closeness) relates to the domains of environment and health
An experimental study reveals that environmental charities are supported more when consumers are primed with psychological distance. For health charities, the opposite is true: the priming of psychological closeness is more effective. The studies extend the literature on Construal Level Theory of Psychological Distance by showing that psychological distance (vs. closeness) relates to the domains of environment and health, with contrasting effects.
High benefits for designing social marketing campaigns
These findings have implications for designing social marketing campaigns. As the studies were conducted in a social marketing context, the results are mainly relevant to practitioners in the area of public policy marketing. Social marketers, public policy makers, and charitable organizations can be informed to better understand the multifinality of many behaviors, and how the preferences for certain contexts is influenced by the concept of psychological distance.
Contact
Chair of Sport and Health Management
Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer
Team assistant: Mirjam Eggers
Uptown München Campus D
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
Phone +49.89.289.24559
Fax +49.89.289.24642
info.mgt@sg.tum.de