liu.seSearch for publications in DiVA
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Effects of Psychological Distance on Mental Abstraction: A Registered Report of Four Tests of Construal-Level Theory
Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7733-9075
Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden; Atlantic Technological University, Gothenburg, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5285-5321
Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany.
Show others and affiliations
Number of Authors: 1762026 (English)In: Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, ISSN 2515-2459, E-ISSN 2515-2467, Vol. 9, no 2, article id 25152459251401177Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Construal-level theory (CLT) proposes that psychological distance influences the level of abstraction at which somethingis mentally construed: Things perceived as less probable (likelihood) or further away from the here (spatial distance),now (temporal distance), or self (social distance) are thought about more abstractly. In this international multilab study,we tested four basic hypotheses derived from core assumptions of CLT and explore potential moderators and boundaryconditions of the effects. Participants (N = 11,775) from 27 countries and regions were randomly assigned to one of fourexperimental protocols focused on different types of psychological distance (temporal, spatial, social, or likelihood),and each experiment manipulated psychological distance (close vs. distant). The protocols for temporal distance (n =2,941) and spatial distance (n = 2,973) were direct replications of Liberman and Trope (Study 1) and Fujita et al. (Study1), respectively. The remaining two protocols were paradigmatic replications, applying to social distance (n = 2,926)and likelihood (n = 2,936). The effects of psychological distance on construal level for the four present studies were asfollows (positive effects are consistent with hypotheses): temporal, d = 0.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.003, 0.16](effect in original study: d = 0.92); spatial, d = 0.04, 95% CI = [−0.03, 0.11] (effect in original study: d = 0.55); social, d= −0.27, 95% CI = [−0.34, −0.19]; and likelihood, d = 0.03, 95% CI = [−0.05, 0.11]. Pretests indicated that valence andabstraction were confounded in response options on the outcome measure. Controlling for this confound eliminatedthe hypothesis-inconsistent effect of social distance, d = 0.006, 95% CI = [−0.05, 0.07]. These findings provide limitedevidence for the predictions of the theory and present a critical challenge for CLT.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
SAGE Publications , 2026. Vol. 9, no 2, article id 25152459251401177
Keywords [en]
Construal-level theory, Mental abstraction, Psychological distance, Replication, Multilab, Open data, Open materials, Preregistration
National Category
Economics Psychology (Excluding Applied Psychology)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-223026DOI: 10.1177/25152459251401177ISI: 001754340200001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105036429491OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-223026DiVA, id: diva2:2054258
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2019-03037
Note

Funding: Swedish Research Council [2019-03037]; Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation [MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033]; Fondos Europeos de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) [PID2022-138665NB-I00, PID2022-137614NB-I00, PID2022-142583NB-I00, CEX2023-001312-M, UCE-PP2023-11]; Australian Research Council [DP190101675, DE240100001]; Slovak Research and Development Agency [APVV-22-0458, APVV-23-0548]; Wesleyan University Grant in Support of Scholarship (GISOS); Swiss National Science Foundation [PZ00P1_216373 / 1]; James Cook University (Singapore Campus) [IRG20230006]; National Key R&D Program of China [2021ZD0204200]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [32071045]; Shenzhen Fundamental Research Program [JCYJ20210324134603010]; John Templeton Foundation [62631]; Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province [ZR2022MC211]

Available from: 2026-04-20 Created: 2026-04-20 Last updated: 2026-06-27

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(3546 kB)5 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 3546 kBChecksum SHA-512
218bcae1ac49db56fb0e0b5ea77f365ee604f1535738fc3cb2f28fbd8290156599b77c052f11c61745ff7fc338b9ca1f0673a5200d8e14866f99e94fc7a9e804
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Koppel, LinaVästfjäll, DanielTinghög, Gustav

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Calderon, SofiaMac Giolla, ErikAlbayrak, NihanBonora, MatteoBrady, Shannon T.Branch, Jared G.Cantarero, KatarzynaDang, JunhuaDanielson, ScottDavis, William E.Derrick, Jaye L.Döring, TimEvans, Thomas RhysFeldman, GiladKoppel, LinaVästfjäll, DanielTinghög, Gustav
By organisation
EconomicsFaculty of Arts and SciencesPsychology
In the same journal
Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science
EconomicsPsychology (Excluding Applied Psychology)

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 16 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf