Abstractness leads people to base their behavioral intentions on desired attitudes

Abstract

People sometimes want attitudes that differ from the ones they currently possess. These desired attitudes appear to be psychologically meaningful, but little is known about the properties of these evaluations. Because desired attitudes are hypothetical constructs (i.e., attitudes that one does not yet possess) and are distant in time (i.e., attitudes one could have in the future), we argued, based on construal level theory, that they should be represented in a relatively abstract manner, and consequently, we examined the implications of this abstractness for the characteristics and impact of desired attitudes. Consistent with this, we demonstrate that people perceive desired attitudes as more invariant across time and context, that desired attitudes are less impacted by changes in low-level features related to the attitude object (Study 1a and 1b) and that desired attitudes have a greater impact on behavioral intentions when people are in an abstract rather than concrete mindset (Studies 2–3). Although we did not make specific predictions regarding actual attitudes, they better predicted behavioral intentions in the concrete mindset (Studies 2–3). This last result should be taken with caution, considering that the level of abstraction shown by actual attitudes in Study 1a was at or slightly above the midpoint of our abstraction indexThis work was supported by MINECO (PSI 2014-53321-P

Using abstractness to confront challenges: How the abstract construal level increases people’s willingness to perform desirable but demanding actions.

“…In all experiments, as a rule of thumb, we followed the suggestion of collecting at least 20 to 30 participants per between-participants condition (see Simmons, Nelson, & Simonsohn, 2011; Wilson Van Voorhis & Morgan, 2007). Furthermore, the sample size was consistent with previous similar studies in the CL program of research that have consistently obtained significant effects with approximately 35 participants per condition (e.g., Carrera et al, 2017; Eyal et al, 2004; Lutchyn & Yzer, 2011; Rim et al, 2013). Across all studies, we disclose all measures, manipulations, and exclusions as well as the sensitivity power analysis (alpha of .05, two-tailed and a criterion power value of 80%) to calculate the minimum effect size that the experiment is able to detect (by using G*Power v.3.1.…”

“…In the CLT framework, extensive research indicates that individuals are more likely to follow their values (i.e., the principles they wish to follow) to form behavioral intentions when these individuals are in an abstract mindset (Eyal, Sagristano, Trope, Liberman, & Chaiken, 2009). Research investigating attitudes has shown that desired attitudes (i.e., the attitudes that people want to have) more strongly predict the behavioral intentions of participants in an abstract rather than a concrete mindset (Carrera, Caballero, Fernández, & Muñoz, 2017; Carrera, Fernández, Muñoz, & Caballero, 2019). In support of this matching effect, recent research has shown that under an abstract construal level, people who read a mixed outcome message describing long- and short-term outcomes tended to base their behavioral plans on distant consequences or high-level information (Carrera et al, 2018).…”

Mapping the jungle: A bibliometric analysis of research into construal level theory

“…In applied CLT research, we not only find individual‐focused topic clusters on marketing (TCs 3, 4, and 5), but also clusters on organizational psychology (TC 2), as well as sustainability, climate change, and energy production (TCs 1, 6, and 11), all of which incorporate societal issues. For example, CLT is a valuable vehicle to explain and predict preference shifts and behavioral inconsistencies (Liberman & Trope, 1998; Trope & Liberman, 2010) Therefore, the theory has implications for and can contribute to the design of effective interventions (Carrera et al, 2017; Fujita & Carnevale, 2012).…”

The Bright Side of Abstraction: Abstractness Promoted More Empathic Concern, a More Positive Emotional Climate, and More Humanity-Esteem After the Paris Terrorist Attacks in 2015

“…Differences in how individuals represent a situation have important consequences on their judgments and decisions (Fujita, 2008), and this reasoning can be applied to terrorist acts and their consequences. In this sense, when an individual presents an abstract construal level, she/he mentally represents the events by focusing on future goals; a style of thinking that motivates them to overcome obstacles and difficulties (Vallacher and Wegner, 1989;Liberman and Trope, 1998;Carrera et al, 2017Carrera et al, , 2019.…”