Date of Award

1-1-2013

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Program

Social/Personality Psychology

Content Description

1 online resource (ii, 43 pages) : illustrations.

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Mark Muraven

Committee Members

Mark Muraven, Ronald Friedman

Keywords

Advertising, Construal level theory, Consumer research, Decision-making, Persuasion, Mental representation, Abstraction, Affect (Psychology), Concrete operations (Psychology), Cognition

Subject Categories

Psychology | Social Psychology

Abstract

The influence of construal level on judgment and decision-making is often seen in consumer research. However, the effect of construal level on preferences for evaluative inputs rather than final products is less explored. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether construal level affects the degree to which individuals rely on either affective or substantive information when making evaluative judgments; specifically, that abstract construals increase reliance on affective information, whereas concrete construals increase reliance on substantive information. Experiment 1 provided evidence for a relative preference for affective versus substantive information when engaged in abstract and concrete construals, respectively. Experiment 2 replicated this effect and provided evidence indicating that perceived diagnosticity mediates the relationships between construal level and the reliance on affective versus substantive information. Advertisements for a print dictionary which independently manipulated affective and substantive information were used in both experiments to test these effects.

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