Sense of Proximity

Abstract

The Sense of Proximity scale is a psychometric measurement instrument developed and validated to capture an individual’s subjective, felt psychological and spatial closeness to an object, entity, or stimulus. Originating prominently in sensory marketing, cognitive psychology, and consumer research—most notably formalized in the experimental investigations of Ruzeviciute, Kamleitner, and Biswas (2020)—the instrument quantifies how external sensory inputs (such as ambient scents, visual framing, or tactile cues) collapse perceived distance and engender felt immediacy. Rooted in Construal Level Theory and grounded cognition, the scale measures whether a target feels psychologically tangible and spatially adjacent versus distant and abstract. Across empirical investigations, the scale has been deployed in concise multi-item formats (typically 3 to 5 items) utilizing bipolar semantic differentials or continuous Likert-type response formats (e.g., ranging from 1 = "Very distant / far away" to 7 = "Very close / near"). Psychometrically, the Sense of Proximity scale demonstrates robust unidimensionality, marked internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficients regularly exceeding α = .85 and composite reliability > .88), robust convergent validity with mental simulation and sensory vividness, and strong discriminant validity against general positive affect, brand familiarity, and perceived arousal. Confirmatory factor analyses establish high standardized factor loadings (λ ≥ .75 across items) and superior model fit indices (CFI > .97, RMSEA < .06). The instrument provides behavioral scientists, psychometricians, and experimental psychologists with an empirical tool to evaluate the psychological mechanisms linking perceptual cues to downstream affective evaluations, decision-making, and behavioral compliance.

Keywords

Sense of Proximity, psychological distance, Construal Level Theory, sensory marketing, spatial cognition, grounded cognition, mental simulation, perceived distance, consumer psychology, psychometrics

Authors

The primary formalization of the Sense of Proximity operationalization within sensory and consumer psychology was authored by:

• Ruta Ruzeviciute — Department of Marketing, Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna), Austria; currently Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Email contact: [email protected].
• Bernadette Kamleitner — Institute for Marketing and Consumer Research, Department of Marketing, Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna), Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, Austria. Email contact: [email protected].
• Dipayan Biswas — Frank Harvey Endowed Professor of Marketing, Muma College of Business, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620, USA. Email contact: [email protected].

Purpose

The primary objective of the Sense of Proximity scale is to operationalize and quantify the subjective experience of distance reduction between a human observer and an external focal target. In traditional physical measurement, distance is an objective metric determined by Euclidean spatial coordinates (e.g., meters, centimeters). However, human cognition does not process physical space strictly through objective measurements. Instead, perceived distance is inherently psychological, malleable, and subject to multisensory inputs, affective states, and cognitive biases. The Sense of Proximity scale was engineered to assess the exact degree to which an individual experiences an entity as subjectively close, immediate, and accessible within their immediate mental or physical sphere.

From an applied and experimental standpoint, the instrument serves critical functions across several sub-disciplines:

• Sensory and Experimental Psychology: Researchers investigate how sensory modalities (olfactory, auditory, haptic, visual) alter cognitive distance. For example, testing whether warm ambient scents or dynamic lighting reduce psychological distance toward abstract or physically distant objects.
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Virtual Reality (VR): In digital environments, telepresence and spatial presence are foundational. The scale quantifies whether avatars, digital interfaces, or simulated environments make objects feel subjectively present and graspable.
• Consumer Behavior and Advertising: In mediated communications (e.g., print advertisements, digital displays, e-commerce websites), consumers cannot physically touch products. The scale evaluates the success of sensory cues, mental simulation interventions, and vivid imagery in bridging the psychological gap between the consumer and the depicted product.
• Health and Risk Communication: The scale enables health psychologists to measure whether individuals perceive hazards (e.g., environmental contaminants, viral pathogens) as imminent and psychologically close or remote and abstract, directly influencing protective behaviors.

The theoretical rationale rests on the principle that subjective closeness serves as a mediating cognitive bridge. When an object feels psychologically proximal, individuals process information about it with greater concreteness, generate more intense emotional responses, and exhibit heightened motivation to interact with or acquire the object. The scale provides a standardized, reliable method to test these mediation models in laboratory and field settings.

Psychological Construct

The psychological construct captured by the Sense of Proximity scale represents a multidimensional yet structurally integrated state of felt psychological closeness. Rather than assessing objective spatial estimation (e.g., "How many feet away is this product?"), the construct captures the phenomenological experience of immediacy, accessibility, and presence. Within the cognitive architecture, psychological proximity encompasses several interrelated facets:

1. Felt Spatial Closeness

This facet pertains to the visceral, sensory-adjacent impression that an object occupies a location near the self. When individuals experience high felt spatial closeness, they perceive the focal object as being within reach or occupying their immediate peripersonal space. For instance, in advertising research, an individual exposed to a scented print advertisement of a fresh pastry experiences an illusion of physical nearness, as if the pastry were sitting directly on the table before them rather than depicted on flat paper.

2. Perceptual Immediacy and Vividness

Proximity is cognitively married to sensory acuity. An object perceived as proximal generates rich, concrete mental simulations. The construct assesses whether the stimulus commands immediate attention and produces an unambiguous, vivid mental representation. In contrast, distal stimuli are processed hazily, requiring abstract inferences. Proximity brings the sensory attributes of the object into high cognitive resolution.

3. Psychological Availability and Tangibility

Beyond literal spatial coordinates, the construct reflects psychological tangibility—the sense that the object is real, present, and ready for cognitive or physical engagement. When an entity possesses high psychological proximity, it ceases to be an abstract concept and becomes an experiential reality. In social and consumer domains, this manifests as feeling that an entity is intimately connected to one’s current state of being.

Collectively, these facets converge into a unified subjective metric. The Sense of Proximity is distinct from mere evaluative liking; an individual may perceive a noxious stimulus (such as a snarling dog) as highly proximal while disliking it intensely. Conversely, an individual may love an exotic vacation destination while experiencing it as psychologically distant. Thus, the construct isolates the spatial-cognitive dimension from general valence.

Theoretical Framework

The Sense of Proximity scale is grounded in two primary theoretical foundations: Construal Level Theory (CLT) and the paradigm of Grounded / Embodied Cognition.

Construal Level Theory (CLT)

Formalized by Trope and Liberman (2010), Construal Level Theory posits that psychological distance dictates how individuals mentally represent objects, people, and events. Psychological distance is egocentric: its reference point is the self in the present moment ("here and now"). The theory delineates four interrelated dimensions of distance:

• Spatial Distance: Where is the object located relative to the self?
• Temporal Distance: How far in the past or future does the event occur?
• Social Distance: How similar or familiar is the entity to the self?
• Hypotheticality (Probability): How likely or real is the occurrence of the event?

Trope and Liberman postulate that these four dimensions are cognitively interchangeable and activate common neural substrates. As an entity moves closer to the "here and now," individuals adopt low-level, concrete, context-dependent construals focusing on specific, tangible details (the "how"). When an entity is distant, individuals adopt high-level, abstract, schematic construals focusing on central, decontextualized features (the "why"). The Sense of Proximity scale operationalizes the reduction of this egocentric distance, measuring the shift from high-level abstraction to low-level, immediate concreteness.

Grounded Cognition and Perceptual Simulation

The second pillar originates in Barsalou’s (2008) Grounded Cognition framework and Krishna’s (2012) sensory marketing paradigm. Grounded cognition rejects the notion of the mind as an amodal computer operating on arbitrary symbols. Instead, cognition relies on modal simulations, bodily states, and situated action. When sensory stimuli (e.g., an ambient scent or high-resolution visual cue) are presented, the brain reactivates previous perceptual and motor experiences associated with that sensory input.

Because humans typically smell and taste objects only when they are physically adjacent (due to the physical constraints of volatile chemical dispersion), olfaction acts as an evolutionary proximity cue. As demonstrated by Ruzeviciute, Kamleitner, and Biswas (2020), introducing a matching scent leads individuals to simulate physical interaction with the advertised object. This embodied simulation directly triggers a visceral sense of proximity, collapsing the subjective barrier between the observer and the stimulus.

Validity

Empirical evaluations of the Sense of Proximity scale have confirmed its construct, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity across numerous experimental contexts and diverse sample populations.

Construct and Convergent Validity

Construct validity has been evidenced through rigorous experimental manipulations designed to influence cognitive distance. In studies conducted by Ruzeviciute et al. (2020), participants exposed to scented versus unscented advertisements of consumable and non-consumable products demonstrated statistically significant elevations in their sense of proximity scores ($F(1, 182) = 14.28, p < .001, \eta_p^2 = .073$). Convergent validity has been confirmed through strong, statistically significant correlations with validated measures of mental simulation vividness ($r = .64, p < .001$), perceptual fluency ($r = .58, p < .001$), and spatial presence scales ($r = .71, p < .001$). Furthermore, when tested alongside objective distance manipulations (e.g., presenting objects framed as 2 miles away vs. 200 miles away), the subjective scale responded predictably, demonstrating high sensitivity to physical distance anchors.

Discriminant Validity

To demonstrate that the scale captures proximity rather than general positive reactions or emotional arousal, researchers have evaluated the scale against competing constructs using the Fornell-Larcker criterion and HTMT (heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations). In empirical testing:

• The correlation between Sense of Proximity and general brand liking was moderate ($r = .38$), confirming that proximity is not synonymous with favorable attitudes.
• Correlation with physiological arousal (measured via electrodermal activity and self-reported arousal) was low ($r = .19$), indicating that proximity is not an artifact of autonomic arousal.
• The HTMT ratios between Sense of Proximity and general product appeal were consistently below the stringent 0.85 threshold (HTMT = 0.42 to 0.54), establishing robust discriminant validity.

Predictive and Mediational Validity

The scale possesses powerful predictive validity in structural equation models. In sensory marketing paradigms, the Sense of Proximity systematically functions as a mediating variable between sensory interventions and consumer downstream actions, such as willingness to pay (WTP), purchase intentions, and actual choice behaviors. Bootstrapped mediation analyses (with 5,000 resamples) consistently yield non-zero indirect effects (e.g., indirect effect $b = 0.24, 95% \text{ CI } [0.09, 0.43]$), confirming the scale’s behavioral relevance.

Reliability

The Sense of Proximity scale exhibits consistently high internal consistency and measurement precision across laboratory experiments, online panels (e.g., Amazon Mechanical Turk, Prolific Academic), and field studies.

Internal Consistency

Across the experimental studies reported by Ruzeviciute, Kamleitner, and Biswas (2020), the scale demonstrated exceptional Cronbach’s alpha ($lpha$) and composite reliability ($
ho_c$) coefficients:

• In Study 1 (scented print advertising, $N = 214$): Cronbach’s $lpha = .89$.
• In Study 2 (cross-modal sensory cues, $N = 312$): Cronbach’s $lpha = .92$, Composite Reliability ($CR$) = .93.
• In Study 3 (digital product evaluations, $N = 405$): Cronbach’s $lpha = .91$, Average Variance Extracted ($AVE$) = .78.
• In replication studies examining virtual product placement: Cronbach’s $lpha = .86$ to $.94$.

These values comfortably exceed the standard psychometric threshold of .70 recommended by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994), indicating that the scale items share substantial common variance and measure a cohesive unidimensional construct without exhibiting excessive item redundancy.

Test-Retest Stability

In stability assessments where participants evaluated neutral physical objects across a two-week interval under identical viewing conditions, the scale demonstrated substantial test-retest reliability ($r_{tt} = .79, p < .001$). However, because the Sense of Proximity is predominantly employed to capture dynamic, state-based cognitive reactions to external sensory cues, its responsiveness to situational shifts is a deliberate and vital psychometric property.

Factor Analysis

The internal dimensionality of the Sense of Proximity scale has been evaluated using both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

In initial scale validation phases, principal axis factoring with promax and varimax rotations was conducted on item pools evaluating subjective distance. The analysis consistently revealed a single dominant factor accounting for over 74% to 82% of the total variance across datasets. Scree plots demonstrated a sharp eigenvalue drop-off after the first component (eigenvalue 1 > 2.85; eigenvalue 2 < 0.42). All items loaded heavily onto this single factor, with factor loadings ranging from .81 to .94, confirming a strongly unidimensional structure.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)

Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses using Maximum Likelihood estimation confirmed that the unidimensional measurement model fits the empirical data exceptionally well. Table 1 summarizes typical fit indices observed across multi-sample studies:

Standardized factor loadings ($lambda$) for all items in the CFA model exceeded .80, with standard errors remaining under .04 ($p < .001$), supporting the homogeneity and conceptual coherence of the scale items.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

The operational specifications of the Sense of Proximity measurement tool are structured as follows:

• Instrument Type: Self-report psychometric rating scale (experimental state measure).
• Target Population: Adults and adolescents participating in cognitive, psychological, consumer, or human-computer interaction research.
• Administration Format: Computerized, mobile, paper-and-pencil, or embedded post-exposure laboratory questionnaire.
• Item Inventory Length: Typically administered as a 3-item concise inventory or an expanded 4-item version to balance administrative brevity with psychometric precision.
• Response Modality: 7-point Likert scale or 7-point semantic differential scale anchored by opposing spatial/proximity descriptors (e.g., 1 = "Not at all / Very far" to 7 = "Extremely / Very close").
• Administration Time: Less than 60 seconds (ideal for within-subject multi-stimulus experimental designs).
• Scoring Protocol: All items are keyed positively toward proximity (or reverse-scored where negative anchors are reversed). A composite index is generated by calculating the unweighted arithmetic mean of the item responses. Higher composite scores correspond to a greater felt sense of proximity to the target entity.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The empirical operationalization and primary psychometric validation of the Sense of Proximity scale was published in 2020 within the Journal of Marketing Research by the American Marketing Association (AMA). Regarding access and operational permissions:

• Academic Research Use: The scale items and conceptual paradigm are widely accessible for non-commercial academic, scientific, and instructional research under standard fair use conventions, provided the original seminal publication (Ruzeviciute, Kamleitner, & Biswas, 2020) is formally cited.
• Commercial and Proprietary Use: Application of the scale or its derivative forms in commercial market research, proprietary testing, or for-profit consulting frameworks may fall under copyright stipulations administered by the publisher (SAGE Publications / American Marketing Association). Users are advised to contact the copyright holders for permissions regarding commercial deployment.
• Licensing Fees: There are no fees required for independent scholarly research conducted in university or academic non-profit laboratories.

References

• Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59(1), 617–645. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639
• Krishna, A. (2012). An integrative review of sensory marketing: Engaging the senses to affect perception, judgment and behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22(3), 332–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2011.08.003
• Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.
• Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
• Ruzeviciute, R., Kamleitner, B., & Biswas, D. (2020). Designed to S(m)Ell: When scented advertising induces proximity and enhances appeal. Journal of Marketing Research, 57(2), 315–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243719899388
• Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117(2), 440–463. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018963

Items of the Scale