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Psychological Distance to Science as a Predictor of Science Skepticism Across Domains

Većkalov, Bojana; Zarzeczna, Natalia; McPhetres, Jonathon; van Harreveld, Frenk; Rutjens, Bastiaan T.

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Authors

Bojana Većkalov

Natalia Zarzeczna

Frenk van Harreveld

Bastiaan T. Rutjens



Abstract

This article presents and tests psychological distance to science (PSYDISC) as a domain-general predictor of science skepticism. Drawing on the concept of psychological distance, PSYDISC reflects the extent to which individuals perceive science as a tangible undertaking conducted by people similar to oneself (social), with effects in the here (spatial) and now (temporal), and as useful and applicable in the real world (hypothetical distance). In six studies (two preregistered; total N = 1,630) and two countries, we developed and established the factor structure and validity of a scale measuring PSYDISC. Crucially, higher PSYDISC predicted skepticism beyond established predictors, across science domains. A final study showed that PSYDISC shapes real-world behavior (COVID-19 vaccination uptake). This work thus provides a novel tool to predict science skepticism, as well as a construct that can help to further develop a unifying framework to understand science skepticism across domains.

Citation

Većkalov, B., Zarzeczna, N., McPhetres, J., van Harreveld, F., & Rutjens, B. T. (2024). Psychological Distance to Science as a Predictor of Science Skepticism Across Domains. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50(1), 18–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221118184

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 18, 2022
Online Publication Date Sep 3, 2022
Publication Date 2024-01
Deposit Date Nov 24, 2022
Publicly Available Date Nov 24, 2022
Journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Print ISSN 0146-1672
Electronic ISSN 1552-7433
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 50
Issue 1
Pages 18–37
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221118184
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1186032

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).




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