Growing evidence reveals that people rely on heuristic cues when processing online information. The current research, by adopting a construal level theory approach, examined whether psychological distance cues within online messages influence message processing. According to construal level theory, spatial and hypothetical distances (i.e., probabilities, likelihoods) share an association based on psychological distance. Construal level literature suggests that people overgeneralize this association and attribute unlikely events to distant places and likely events to close-by places. The current research provides a novel test of this relationship in an online communication setting. In two within-subjects experiments (Studies 1 and 2), we presented participants tweets depicting likely and unlikely events, and measured whether they attribute them to spatially close or far sources. Confirming our predictions, participants utilized the psychological distance cues and attributed the likely tweets to spatially close and the unlikely tweets to spatially far sources. In two follow-up experiments, we tested the same relationship by employing between-subjects designs. In Study 3 where participants saw one spatial distance and both likely and unlikely tweets, participants formed the same association albeit less strongly and attributed the unlikely tweets to spatially distant sources. In Study 4, where participants saw two spatial distances and only one tweet, the expected association was not formed. Findings suggest that comparison of likelihood information is necessary to form an association between source location and tweet likelihood. The implications of psychological distance and a construal level theory approach are discussed in the context of online heuristics and persuasion.

中文翻译：

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在线邮件中的心理距离提示

越来越多的证据表明，人们在处理在线信息时依赖启发式线索。当前的研究通过采用解释性层次的理论方法，研究了在线消息中的心理距离线索是否会影响消息处理。根据解释水平理论，空间距离和假设距离（即概率，可能性）基于心理距离共享关联。解释性文献表明，人们过度概括了这种联系，并将不太可能发生的事件归因于遥远的地方，而可能将可能发生的事件归因于附近的地方。当前的研究为在线交流中的这种关系提供了一种新颖的测试。在两个受试者内部实验（研究1和2）中，我们介绍了参与者的推文，描述了可能和不太可能发生的事件，并测量它们是否将其归因于空间接近或远处的源。与会者证实了我们的预测，他们利用了心理距离提示，并将可能的推文归因于空间接近，而不太可能的推论归因于空间较远的来源。在两个后续实验中，我们通过对象间设计测试了相同的关系。在研究3中，参与者看到一个空间距离以及可能和不太可能的推文，参与者虽然不那么强烈地形成了相同的关联，但将不大可能的推特归因于空间遥远的来源。在研究4中，参与者看到两个空间距离且只有一条鸣叫，未形成预期的关联。结果表明，似然信息的比较对于在源位置和推特似然之间形成关联是必要的。