Seeing trees and forests better: cognitive reflection increases sensitivity to changes in construal levels

Abstract

Construal level theory suggests that adopting a distal versus proximal psychological perspective changes the way people think and behave. Psychological proximity induces low level, concrete and contextualized mental construals while psychological distance induces high level, abstract and stable construals. Researchers studying construal level effects have recently asked whether the ability to traverse psychological distance is a mental ability. In this paper, we investigate the effect of cognitive reflection on mental construals. Through two studies, the first utilizing an object categorization task with construal levels manipulated through temporal distance, and the second a product preference based task with construal levels manipulated through social distance we establish the moderating effect of cognitive reflection on construal level thinking. Specifically we show that more reflective thinkers have greater sensitivity to changes in construal level than less reflective individuals. We also discuss the possible implications and avenues for future research.