Managing Yourself: Bridging Psychological Distance

Because all psychological distance involves the same underlying thought processes, substituting one type for another can spur either more-abstract or more-concrete thinking. This trick works so well that academic researchers use it to establish that what they are manipulating really is psychological distance. If it is, then any type - social, temporal, spatial, or experiential - should produce the same effect. Managers face challenges related to social, temporal, spatial, and experiential distance every day. they can overcome those challenges by understanding the common thread that links them and learning to either adjust the distance or substitute one type for another.