Cognitive psychology

Psychological research

Communication

Social psychology

Operating system

Construals

Computer science

Construal level theory

Self construal

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Psychology

Politics

Political science

Personal space

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Representation (politics)

Medicine

Social distance

Interdependence

Disease

Affect (linguistics)

Space (punctuation)

Pathology

Journal of Consumer Psychology

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.

Construal Levels and Psychological Distance: Effects on Representation, Prediction, Evaluation, and Behavior