The Effect of Spatial Distance on the Moral Judgment of Environmental Wrongdoings

Abstract: We conducted a direct replication of Grolleau et al.’s (2023) France-based experiment ( N = 182), which found that higher spatial distance between a decision-maker and the environmental wrongdoing led to harsher moral judgments by third parties. In our German-speaking sample ( N = 280), we found minimal support for the original findings, with effect sizes substantially smaller than the original study. As an extension, we examined nature relatedness as a moderator and construal level as mediator – one of the mechanisms proposed but not assessed by the original authors. Construal level did not correlate with moral judgments, and nature relatedness showed no moderating effect. We discuss potential explanations for this replication failure relating to materials, measurements, and theoretical assumptions underlying the original hypothesis.