title: A magnitude effect in judgments of subjective closeness.
abstract: Events can be far away from or near an observer in several respects: They can be distant or close in a spatial, temporal, social, or hypothetical sense. They can also vary in magnitude, physically, or in terms of impact and importance. We examine the existence of a general effect of perceived magnitude on judgments of subjective closeness. Studies 1 to 4 show that proximity judgments, of any type, are affected by the severity of an event so that a highly severe event will be described as closer than a less severe one. Study 5 demonstrates the Magnitude Effect for positive events. Finally, Study 6 shows that the effect can be extended to distances between comparable events, in addition to the distance from an observer to an event. We see the Magnitude Effect as a spillover from the scales used to describe events to the scales used to describe distances.
authors.affiliation: University of Oslo, Norway a.b.kanten@psykologi.uio.no.
authors.forename: Alf Børre
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Kanten
authors.affiliation: University of Oslo, Norway Simula Research Laboratory, Norway.
authors.forename: Karl Halvor
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Teigen
mesh_terms: D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012931:Social Environment; D013028:Space Perception
keywords: distance perception; judgments; psychological distance; social cognition