The construct of psychological distance has gained traction as an explanation of why climate change is difficult to act on; it often feels far removed, with impacts arising in remote locations to other people or in an uncertain future. However, recent studies and narrative reviews have pointed out inconsistencies in the conceptualisation, operationalisation and results regarding the psychological distance of climate change, with research evidently struggling to develop the construct and determine its place in explaining and promoting pro-environmental behaviour. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature aimed at building an evidence base on which to develop research on psychological distance. Following a systematic search of three databases, 73 records with 84 individual studies were identified, which measured or manipulated the concept in relation to climate change. We find that psychological distance in the context of climate change is a dynamic, context-specific, multidimensional construct, with a wide variety of approaches to measurement and manipulation. Current theorising (primarily Construal Level Theory) is insufficient in describing the diversity and complexity of distance in the climate-change context. Based on the reviewed studies, we give recommendations for the measurement and manipulation of the construct. However, our overarching suggestion is to focus on specific contexts in which distance plays a role in climate-change cognition and action, such as the perception of impacts, policy or behaviour. We discuss how describing distance within these contexts can help researchers to understand current findings, to disentangle different components of distance beliefs and to incorporate theory and insights from related perspectives.

心理距离的构造已成为解释气候变化难以采取行动的原因。它常常让人感觉很遥远，在偏远地区对其他人或在不确定的未来产生影响。然而，最近的研究和叙述性评论指出，气候变化的心理距离在概念化、操作化和结果方面存在不一致，研究显然难以开发该结构并确定其在解释和促进亲环境行为中的位置。本文对旨在建立证据基础的文献进行系统回顾，在此基础上开展心理距离研究。在对三个数据库进行系统搜索后，确定了 84 项独立研究的 73 条记录，它衡量或操纵了与气候变化有关的概念。我们发现，气候变化背景下的心理距离是一种动态的、特定于背景的、多维的结构，具有多种测量和操纵方法。当前的理论（主要是解释水平理论）不足以描述气候变化背景下距离的多样性和复杂性。根据审查的研究，我们对结构的测量和操作提出建议。然而，我们的总体建议是关注距离在气候变化认知和行动中发挥作用的特定背景，例如对影响、政策或行为的感知。我们讨论了在这些背景下描述距离如何帮助研究人员理解当前的发现，