The effect of psychological distance on perceptual level of construal

Nira Liberman*, Jens Förster

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

91 Scopus citations

Abstract

Three studies examined the effect of primed psychological distance on level of perceptual construal, using Navon's paradigm of composite letters (global letters that are made of local letters). Relative to a control group, thinking of the more distant future (Study 1), about more distant spatial locations (Study 2), and about more distant social relations (Study 3) facilitated perception of global letters relative to local letters. Proximal times, spatial locations, and social relations had the opposite effect. The results are discussed within the framework of Construal Level Theory of psychological distance (Liberman & Trope, 2008; Trope & Liberman, 2003).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1330-1341
Number of pages12
JournalCognitive Science
Volume33
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2009

Keywords

  • Construal level theory
  • Embodied cognition
  • Pattern recognition
  • Perception
  • Psychological distance
  • Representation
  • Situated cognition

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