The differential effects of psychological distance on the influence of presumed media influence model

• Main Author: Goh, Tong Jee
• Other Authors: Shirley S. Ho
• Format: Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Social sciences::Communication::Communication theories and models
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/166531
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The influence of presumed media influence (IPMI) model postulates that media viewers react to media content based on their presumption of influence of the content on other media viewers (“others”). Past studies examined the differential influence of presumption of media influence on proximal others and distal others on media viewers’ reactions. However, there were inconsistent applications of the concepts of social distance and spatial distance in the explication of the concept of others. Specifically, within one scale, “proximal others” were operationalized as socially proximal others. Yet, “distal others” were operationalized as spatially distal others. Another limitation is that extant studies overlooked the impact of psychological distance of others on the IPMI processes, although the self-other distinction is fundamental in the media viewers-others relationship. Hence, the goal of this dissertation is to introduce a psychological perspective into the IPMI model to address the limitations. The application of the concept of psychological distance to operationalize distance and moderate the hypothesized IPMI models can help to achieve this goal. The concept of psychological distance was applied consistently, from the proximal to the distal others, in two studies. Study One: (a) spatial distance: others living in Singapore vs. others living in the United Kingdom and (b) social distance: similar vs. dissimilar others. Similarity is one dimension of social distance. These operationalizations, which took place in a 2 x 2 between-subject experiment, induced the high and low levels of psychological distance of others. The distance-boosting hypothesis informed the detection of the two levels of psychological distance. Two other operationalizations were carried out in Study Two: (a) spatial distance: as above and (b) social distance: familiar vs. unfamiliar others. Familiarity is another dimension of social distance. The hypothesized IPMI models were moderated at the high and low levels of psychological distance. The context of study was science misinformation. Crucially, both studies found differential impact of psychological distance on IPMI processes. Study One found that when media viewers thought about psychologically distal others (vs. proximal others), there was a stronger association between perception of support for regulations against science misinformation at the societal level (i.e., strong perceived descriptive norms) and support for regulations. Conversely, Study Two found that when media viewers thought about psychologically proximal others (vs. distal others), there was a stronger association between expectation on themselves to correct science misinformation (i.e., strong perceived subjective norms) and intention to perform the action. Construal fit explains the results: a match in high mental abstractions of (a) distal others, (b) perceived descriptive norms, and (c) support for regulations. Construal fit at the low level of mental abstractions explains the results of Study Two. These outcomes deepen understanding of IPMI processes. Through the application of the concept of psychological distance, this dissertation contributes to the IPMI literature by addressing the critical inconsistencies that past IPMI studies displayed in operationalizations of others separated by distance. This dissertation also unveils how psychological distance of others can affect the strengths of IPMI processes. Overall, this dissertation presents evidence that the theoretical application of psychological distance of others, the employment of experiment designs, and the utilization of multigroup structural equation modeling are viable means for extending the theoretical, methodical, and analytical scope of IPMI research.