Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of psychological distance (temporal and spatial) on crime anxiety. In Study 1, a total of 440 participants were assigned to eight different scenario conditions: temporal distance (one day ago vs. ten years ago), spatial distance (domestic vs. international (USA)), and crime severity (low vs. high), with 55 participants per condition. Respondents read a scenario about “a motiveless crime incident,” which was set differently for each condition and then measured their level of anxiety on an 11-point Likert scale. The analysis revealed that the main effects of temporal and spatial distance were not confirmed, and only the main effect of severity was identified. Interaction effects were observed only between spatial distance and severity. Specifically, in low-severity crime incidents, there was a difference in anxiety levels depending on spatial distance, but in high-severity crime incidents, there was no difference in anxiety levels based on spatial distance. Study 2 was conducted to find the reason why the effect of temporal distance on anxiety was not significant in Study 1. In Study 2, to verify if the results of Study 1 were a unique pattern appearing only in motiveless crimes, an additional scenario contrasting with motiveless crimes, targeting a specific individual (friend), was added. In Study 2, 60 participants were assigned to each of the eight conditions of temporal distance (one day ago vs. twenty years ago), crime type (motiveless crime vs. specific individual crime), and crime severity (low vs. high), totaling 480 participants (excluding 3 outliers). The analysis revealed significant main effects for temporal distance, crime severity, and crime type. Additionally, an interaction effect between temporal distance and crime type was confirmed. In the case of crimes targeting specific individuals, the expected difference in anxiety based on temporal distance was observed, as anticipated in Study 1. However, in the case of motiveless crimes, there was no difference in anxiety based on temporal distance. This result indicates that motiveless crimes cause high anxiety regardless of temporal distance, differing from existing studies where temporal distance effects on crime anxiety were observed.