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Construal Levels and Psychological Distance: Effects on Representation, Prediction, Evaluation, and Behavior
Author(s) -
Trope Yaacov,
Liberman Nira,
Wakslak Cheryl
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1016/s1057-7408(07)70013-x
Subject(s) - construal level theory , construals , psychology , social psychology , social distance , space (punctuation) , self construal , personal space , psychological research , affect (linguistics) , cognitive psychology , computer science , communication , medicine , interdependence , disease , covid-19 , pathology , political science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , operating system
Construal level theory (CLT) is an account of how psychological distance influences individuals’ thoughts and behavior. CLT assumes that people mentally construe objects that are psychologically near in terms of low‐level, detailed, and contextualized features, whereas at a distance they construe the same objects or events in terms of high‐level, abstract, and stable characteristics. Research has shown that different dimensions of psychological distance (time, space, social distance, and hypotheticality) affect mental construal and that these construals, in turn, guide prediction, evaluation, and behavior. The present paper reviews this research and its implications for consumer psychology.