Research Progress and Thematic Evolution of Psychological Distance-A Co-Word Analysis Based on Bibliometric Research

Psychological distance provides a mechanistic and integrated theoretical framework for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research; however, its research status and developmental trends remain to be clarified. This study used Citespace, Bibexcel, and Netdraw to construct scientific maps and performed co-word analysis, social network analysis, and cluster analysis of data from 1371 published studies on psychological distance that were retrieved from the Web of Science database. The results and conclusions were as follows: (1) The relevant research identified four periods: an infancy period, exploration period, growth period, and outbreak period. (2) Research on psychological distance has been mainly within the fields of psychology, economics, business, social psychology, and management. (3) Chronologically, the relevant research evolved from an individual psychological level to a social developmental level, and then to an individual behavioral level. (4) Clustering analysis of high-frequency keywords identified six research themes: "psychological construction process," "individual emotions and reactions," "social cognition and decisions," "marketing and consumer behavior," "international trade," and "environmental protection and social responsibility." These themes indicate that studies on psychological distance have involved theory generation, theory driving, and theory diffusion. Finally, this study combined the data and literature analysis to construct a model of developmental trends to highlight possible directions for future research.