The effect of construal level on time perceptions, confidence in judgements and future preferences

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to examine how activating an abstract versus concrete construal as a retrieval cue – prior to providing estimates but after exposure to the stimulus – affects retrospective duration estimates of a hedonic experience, the kind of experience one might wish to repeat. Recent research has examined the effect of construal mindsets on prospective time perceptions (Hans and Trope, 2013) as well as the prediction of future durations (Kanten, 2011; Siddiqui et al., 2014). Design/methodology/approach – Two experiments are presented to test four hypotheses. The effect of construal level on time perceptions, confidence in duration judgments and future preferences using two different construal level manipulation techniques and a range of measures for the dependent variables is demonstrated. Findings – This research found that compared to a neutral experience, time perceptions of an enjoyable event are not explained by differences in the level of attention paid to the stimuli; that duration estimates elicited under abstract construals are shorter than those produced by concrete construals; and regardless of construal mindset, memory decay due to time delay appears to be at work. Hence duration estimates shorten. Moreover, abstract construals decrease confidence in duration judgments, but positively affect future preferences compared to a concrete mindset. Originality/value – This paper expands current knowledge by showing that construal mindsets can be used as retrieval cues to affect evaluations of past experiences and consumers’ experience-based future preferences.

Construal level and collaborative consumption: An exploratory approach

“…In the light of the CLT, access and purchase are related and both can be influenced by the level of an individual's mental construction. The examples portrayed in this section, such as (a) the influence of peers (Zhao & Xie, ), (b) the level of confidence in the choice (Tsai & McGill, ) or (c) satisfaction evaluation based on remembered information (Vilches‐Montero & Spence, ) can facilitate the transposition of results founded in so‐called ‘traditional’ consumption to the collaborative consumption.…”

“…Vilches‐Montero and Spence () also analyzed experiment evaluations. One of the main results of his research was to show that the abstract levels raise the memory of how the individual enjoyed the experience that has passed.…”

Effects of Self-Affirmation Feedback on Exercise Intention of Women in Their Twenties Depending on Construal Level

“…In both cases, when importance is attached to a future-oriented goal and the value of exercise, the exercise intention is closer to a high-level construal than a low-level construal. Recent empirical studies have shown that abstract (or high-level) construal had a more positive effect on future preferences than did the concrete mind-set condition (or low-level construal) (Vilches-Montero & Spence, 2015), and as the tendency to consider future consequences became salient at the abstract construal level, preference for utilitarian foods products also increased (van Beek, Handgraaf, & Antonides, 2017). Therefore, participants’ continuation intentions of success can be enhanced more efficiently by providing them with DSF (emphasizing desirability) compared to FSF (emphasizing feasibility).…”

How Word of Mouth Influences the Storyteller: Does the Effect Replicate in China?

“…Scholars largely converge on the viewpoint that unpacking an enjoyable past hedonic experience into its constituent sub-activities amplifies consumers' retrospective affective evaluation (Cowley 2014, Van Boven and Epley 2003, Vilches-Montero 2015, Vilches-Montero and Spence 2015. Telling the story of an enjoyable past experience also enhances experience duration estimation (Vilches-Montero and Spence 2015) and the self (Chawdhary and Riley 2015).…”

“…Despite Yang et al (2014), however, extant research on WOM influence on the storyteller remains predominantly western, in terms of its empirical findings, and except for Moore (2012Moore ( , 2015 and Vilches-Montero and Spence (2015), no research investigates explaining language. Meanwhile, in consumer research as in any other field, replications are one of the building blocks of the structures of knowledge.…”