Differential Information Use for Near and Distant Decisions

a b s t r a c t Whether choosing a cell phone, a senator, or a kitchen appliance, consumers today quickly find themselves awash in information from commercials, magazines, and websites. Whereas some of this information is broad, decontextualized, and abstracted across multiple individuals and instances, other information is more closely tied to a single experience within one specific context. The present research asks: under what circumstances do people rely on abstracted averages, and when are they swayed by another individual's particular experience? Across three studies, we show that temporal distance increases the relative weight placed on aggregate vs. individualized information when participants are asked to choose between two sleeping pills, migraine medications, or kitchen appliances, and that this process impacts not only evaluation but also willingness to pay and choice. Potential implications for evaluation, decision-making, and base-rate utilization are discussed

Spreading Rationalization: Increased Support for Large-Scale and Small-Scale Social Systems Following System ĉreat

System justifi cation theory suggests that individuals defend and rationalize aspects of prevailing social systems, especially in response to system threat. In two experiments we extend this framework by demonstrating that people rationalize small-scale social systems (e.g., local popularity hierarchies and the nuclear family) as well as large-scale social systems (e.g., American society). Furthermore, we fi nd that system threat leads people to bolster not only the legitimacy of the social system that is directly threatened but also the legitimacy of systems at other levels of analysis. These results provide evidence of spreading rationalization, suggesting that people respond defensively to other social systems when one system that they belong to is criticized or attacked. As individuals functioning within social contexts, each of us simultaneously hold positions in multiple social networks. These can range in size and complexity from families and friendship cliques to formal organizations and societal institutions. While each of these networks undoubtedly has its own set of uniqu

Using abstract language signals power.

Power can be gained through appearances: People who exhibit behavioral signals of power are often treated in a way that allows them to actually achieve such power (Ridgeway, Berger, & Smith, 1985; Smith & Galinsky, 2010). In the current article, we examine power signals within interpersonal communication, exploring whether use of concrete versus abstract language is seen as a signal of power. Because power activates abstraction (e.g., Smith & Trope, 2006), perceivers may expect higher power individuals to speak more abstractly and therefore will infer that speakers who use more abstract language have a higher degree of power. Across a variety of contexts and conversational subjects in 7 experiments, participants perceived respondents as more powerful when they used more abstract language (vs. more concrete language). Abstract language use appears to affect perceived power because it seems to reflect both a willingness to judge and a general style of abstract thinking

Seeing the forest when entry is unlikely: Probability and the mental representation of events

Conceptualizing probability as psychological distance, the authors draw on construal level theory (Y. Trope & N. Liberman, 2003) to propose that decreasing an event’s probability leads individuals to represent the event by its central, abstract, general features (high-level construal) rather than by its peripheral, concrete, specific features (low-level construal). Results indicated that when reported probabilities of events were low rather than high, participants were more broad (Study 1) and inclusive (Study 2) in their categorization of objects, increased their preference for general rather than specific activity descriptions (Study 3), segmented ongoing behavior into fewer units (Study 4), were more successful at abstracting visual information (Study 5), and were less successful at identifying details missing within a coherent visual whole (Study 6). Further, after exposure to low-probability as opposed to high-probability phrases, participants increasingly preferred to identify actions in ends-related rather than means-related terms (Study 7). Implications for probability assessment and choice under uncertainty are discussed