Mind in Motion by Barbara Tversky

Author:Barbara Tversky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2019-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

Near and far

We begin with an old, but nevertheless true, aphorism: Can’t see the forest for the trees. When we are close, we see the trees; only from a distance can we see the forest. From close, you see the details; from afar, you see the broad outlines. Now, which is better? The usual answer: it depends. But first, let’s examine the phenomenon that imagined distance affects thinking in a range of tasks. In particular, a distant focus is accompanied by generalities, abstraction, and greater certainty, whereas a close focus is accompanied by specifics, details, and greater uncertainty. Here are a few of the studies that are consistent with that analysis. People are faster to read words denoting certainty, like sure, when they are located close in a drawn scene and faster to read words expressing uncertainty, like maybe, when the words are placed at a distance in a scene.

When they imagine the distant future, people judge that others and they themselves will be more consistent than when they imagine the near future. This implies that we are more likely to get out of ourselves when we take a distant perspective on ourselves. According to the fundamental attribution error, we see our own behavior as more dependent on external influences, so more variable and uncertain, but we see others’ behavior is more dependent on traits, so more consistent and predictable. Distancing ourselves from ourselves makes us see our own selves like selves of others. People use more abstract words to describe their distant past than their close past.

Together, the studies show that taking a distant spatial perspective induces people to think more abstractly. This suggests that taking a distant spatial perspective should abet creative problem solving, and in fact, children and adults are more likely to solve insight problems after they have been primed with a distant perspective.

But distance is only one-dimensional, and space has three dimensions, though it’s often flattened to two in the mind and on the page. Instead of thinking along a single line, let’s now pop up overhead.

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