Vertical Position is Associated with Construal Level and Psychological Distance
- 1 October 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Guilford Publications in Social Cognition
- Vol. 39 (5), 632-655
- https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2021.39.5.632
Abstract
Recent findings suggest that stimulus construal level (high vs. low) is mentally associated with its vertical position (up vs. down). We delve deeper into this association and its meanings, and examine, for the first time, its complementary association, that of stimulus psychological distance (distant vs. close) and its vertical position (up vs. down). In Study 1 and 2 goals of activities were positioned higher than the means of performing them and were perceived as more compatible with a spatially higher viewpoint. In Study 3, self-perceptions were more invariant when items were presented at the top (vs. the bottom) of a visual display. In Study 4, participants positioned imagination-related concepts above reality-related concepts. In Study 5, participants provided more distant time estimates for scenarios presented at the top (vs. the bottom) of a display. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.Keywords
This publication has 48 references indexed in Scilit:
- In a year, memory will benefit from learning, tomorrow it won’t: Distance and construal level effects on the basis of metamemory judgments.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2013
- Politeness and psychological distance: A construal level perspective.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2010
- Construal-level theory of psychological distance.Psychological Review, 2010
- The Effect of Construal Level on Subjective Probability EstimatesPsychological Science, 2009
- The Psychology of Transcending the Here and NowScience, 2008
- Time in the mind: Using space to think about timeCognition, 2008
- Representations of the self in the near and distant future.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2008
- The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing That People UseJournal of Consumer Research, 2007
- Automatic processing of psychological distance: Evidence from a Stroop task.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2007
- Emergence of sensitivity to pictorial depth cues: Charting development in individual infantsInfant Behavior and Development, 2002