Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 45, Issue 5, Pages 1088-1097Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.06.015
Keywords
Person perception; Social cognition; Trait inference; Construal; Psychological distance
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Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [R01 MH059030-10, R01 MH059030] Funding Source: Medline
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Can psychological distance affect how much perceivers form spontaneous trait inferences (STI) from others' behaviors? On the basis of construal level theory (CLT) which posits that distant (vs. near) entities are represented more in terms of their abstract, global, and decontextualized features, we predicted that perceived distance would increase the tendency for perceivers to draw spontaneous trait inferences from behavioral information about actors. In two experiments, participants learned about people who were perceived as being distant or proximal to the self, and STI formation was subsequently assessed. We found that perceivers were more likely to form STIs about distant vs. near actors from the same behavioral information. These findings generalized across two distance dimensions: space and time. In addition, we found that priming individuals to adopt a high-level (vs. low-level) construal mindset also resulted in increased STI (Experiment 3). In sum, psychological distance facilitates STI formation, and this occurs via high-level construal of actors and their behaviors. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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