Consumer Responses to Spatial Distance and Social Distance in a Cause Marketing Campaign: A Structured Abstract

Proximity, or spatial closeness, can generate social closeness—the closer people are together, the more they interact, affiliate, and befriend one another. Mediated communication allows people to bridge spatial distance and can increase social closeness between conversational partners, even when they are separated by distance. However, mediated communication may not always make people feel closer together. Here, we test a hypothesis derived from construal theory, about one way in which mediated communication might increase spatial distance, by imposing social distance between two texting partners. In three studies, the social distance generated by a text conversation correlated with estimates of spatial distance. Conversations designed to generate social distance increased estimates of spatial distance. We discuss this relationship in light of the rise in computer-mediated communication.

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Public Perceptions of Child Sexual Exploitation Abroad: A Vignette Experiment on the Influence of Social Distance

Crime & Delinquency ◽

10.1177/00111287211064786 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 001112872110647

Author(s):

Anneke Koning

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

The Netherlands ◽

Social Distance ◽

Sexual Exploitation ◽

Public Perceptions ◽

Spatial Distance ◽

Crime Severity ◽

Child Sexual Exploitation ◽

Vignette Experiment ◽

The Impact

This study examines the impact of social and spatial distance on public opinion about sexual exploitation of children. A randomized vignette experiment among members of a Dutch household panel investigated whether public perceptions of child sexual exploitation were more damning or more lenient when it occurred in a country closer to home, and explored theoretical explanations. The results show that offenses committed in the Netherlands or U.S. are overall perceived as more negative than those committed in Romania or Thailand. Social distance affects public perceptions about crime severity, and victims are attributed more responsibility in socially close than socially distant conditions. The study concludes that public perceptions are contingent upon the crime location, even when applied to child sexual exploitation.

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Interpersonal Distance as a Function of Task Difficulty, Praise, Status Orientation, and Sex of Partner

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1974.39.2.683 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 683-692 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Leonore Loeb Adler ◽

Marvin A. Iverson

Keyword(s):

Social Distance ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Physical Distance ◽

Spatial Distance ◽

High Status ◽

Interpersonal Distance ◽

Same Sex ◽

Easy Task ◽

Female Partners ◽

Lower Status

Interpersonal distance between Ss and confederates was measured in the laboratory. Ss placed themselves relatively far away from partners who flattered them and who were ascribed lower status. In turn, they sat farther from subordinates who praised them after performing a difficult in comparison with an easy task. Their spatial distance from partners of high status did not differ across conditions. These results were interpreted as evidence for the fact that social distance as experienced in status-oriented relationships is manifest in interpersonal physical distance. In further analyses, the differences in interpersonal distance were more reliable in same-sex than in male-female partners. Also, men tended to be more variable and on the average more distant than were women.

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Social distance and spatial distance are not the same, observations on the use of GIS in leprosy epidemiology

Epidemiology and Infection ◽

10.1017/s0950268808000381 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 136 (12) ◽

pp. 1624-1627 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

T. A. HOEVEN ◽

E. A. J. FISCHER ◽

D. PAHAN ◽

J. H. RICHARDUS

Keyword(s):

High Risk ◽

Social Distance ◽

Geographical Information Systems ◽

Index Patient ◽

Low Risk ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Spatial Distance ◽

Disease Epidemiology ◽

Infectious Disease Epidemiology ◽

Leprosy Patients

SUMMARYContacts of leprosy patients have a higher risk of developing clinical leprosy. Being a contact is defined socially, but with the introduction of geographical information systems (GIS) in infectious disease epidemiology, it is necessary to relate spatial distance to social distance. We measured the distances between patients and their socially defined contacts in northwest Bangladesh. Contact categories differ in mean distance to the index patients. Sixty-seven per cent of the high-risk contacts lived within 10 metres (m), while all low-risk contacts lived >10 m from the index patient. Classification based on intervals of spatial distance creates categories that contain contacts of different socially defined categories, illustrated by a category of people living between 10 m and 20 m consisting of 47% of high-risk contacts and 52% low-risk contacts. Classification of contacts based on the spatial distance, as performed with GIS techniques, produces other groups than with social definitions.

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Processing of nonegocentric spatial distance and social distance in a flanker task

Chinese Science Bulletin ◽

10.1007/s11434-014-0341-3 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 59 (19) ◽

pp. 2282-2286

Author(s):

Xiaoang Wan ◽

Kyoung-Hwan Seoul ◽

Yang Wang

Keyword(s):

Social Distance ◽

Flanker Task ◽

Spatial Distance

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Social distance versus spatial distance in R&D cooperation: Empirical evidence from European collaboration choices in micro and nanotechnologies

Papers of the Regional Science Association ◽

10.1111/j.1435-5957.2007.00132.x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 86 (3) ◽

pp. 495-519 ◽

Cited By ~ 151

Author(s):

Corinne Autant-Bernard ◽

Pascal Billand ◽

David Frachisse ◽

Nadine Massard

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Social Distance ◽

Spatial Distance ◽

European Collaboration

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Does Distance Affect the Role of Nonlocal Subsidiaries on Cluster Firms’ Innovation? An Empirical Investigation on Chinese Biotechnology Cluster Firms

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11236725 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (23) ◽

pp. 6725 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Xiyao Xiang ◽

Wei-Chiao Huang

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Acquisition ◽

Social Distance ◽

Empirical Investigation ◽

The Other ◽

Spatial Distance ◽

Geographical Distance ◽

Innovative Performance ◽

Parent Companies ◽

Distinct Role

As translocation strategy has been pursued by cluster firms, two types of nonlocal subsidiaries, nonlocal manufacturing subsidiaries (NMS) and nonlocal R&D subsidiaries (NRS) contribute to their holding firms’ innovation in different ways. Prior studies have not paid much attention to the role of NMS and NRS, and how their effects are contingent on distance. To address this gap, this paper assesses the contribution of NMS and NRS on cluster firms’ innovation performance respectively and ascertains the moderating effect of geographical distance and social distance. The empirical investigation is conducted using a sample of 79 Chinese cluster firms. Our results indicate that both NMS and NRS have positively influenced cluster firms’ innovative performance. Moreover, geographical distance negatively moderates both the role of NMS and NRS. On the other hand, social distance only increases the influence of NRS on their holding firms’ innovation. Thus, spatial distance may hamper knowledge acquisition through NMS and NRS while loosely connected NRS would contribute more to their parent companies in local clusters. Our research contributes to the literature on cluster firms’ relocation strategy by clarifying the distinct role of NMS and NRS and recognizing the contingent effect caused by geographical and social distance.

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Understanding the Link Between Spatial Distance and Social Distance

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000062 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 185-192 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Justin L. Matthews ◽

Teenie Matlock

Keyword(s):

Social Relationships ◽

Social Distance ◽

Conceptual Structure ◽

Spatial Language ◽

Spatial Distance

Why do people use spatial language to describe social relationships? In particular, to what extent do they anchor their thoughts about friendship in terms of space? Three experiments used drawing and estimation tasks to further explore the conceptual structure of social distance using friendship as a manipulation. In all three experiments, participants read short narratives and then drew what they imagined happened during the narrative and estimated passing time. Overall, the results of these exploratory studies suggest that the conceptual structure of friendship is linked to thought about space in terms of path drawing. Results are discussed in light of social distance and intercharacter interaction.

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