Pain here and now: physical pain impairs transcendence of psychological distance

摘要

BackgroundThe ability to traverse psychological distance by going beyond the experienced reality of the self, here and now, is fundamental for effective human functioning. Yet, little is known about how physical pain affects transcendence of psychological distance. Using a construal level theory framework of psychological distance, the current research examines the hypothesis that pain impairs people’s ability to traverse any kind of psychological distance whether it be temporal, social, and spatial distance, or the hypothetical.