Effects of Construal Level on Omission Detection and Multiattribute Evaluation

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that consumers are commonly insensitive to missing information and that this insensitivity can lead them to form strong beliefs and evaluations on the basis of weak evidence. A growing body of research has shown that sensitivity to omissions can be heightened and that this increased sensitivity results in more appropriate evaluations. Expanding on this, the current research finds that the level of abstraction by which a situation is construed can influence the likelihood of omission detection and the resulting evaluative judgments. A series of studies reveal that people are more likely to spontaneously detect omissions in near vs. distant judgments, in concrete vs. abstract mindsets, and when they are inherently more likely to interpret actions in concrete vs. abstract terms. Further, although prior findings suggest that people may have differential sensitivity to primary and secondary missing features at different levels of construal, the current research finds no such difference. The results of this study indicate that people are more sensitive to all types of missing information when construal levels are low, and that this sensitivity leads to more moderate and appropriate judgments.

The Effects of Construal Level on Types of Creative Agreements

“…For instance, Förster, Friedman and Liberman (2004) showed that participants primed with a low-level construal performed better than participants primed with a high-level construal in an analytical task that relied on processing concrete information. Similarly, Pfeiffer et al (2014) demonstrated that people with low-level construals were superior to people with high-level construals at detecting omissions, which requires greater attention to details. Thus, during planning, negotiators with a low-level construal are likely to focus on information about the details and concrete features of the existing issues rather than the broad aims of the entire negotiation situation.…”

Evaluation context role on generating online product recommendations

“…Psychological distance could also interfere, for instance, on sensitizing about omitted product information. People tend to be more sensitive to missing information when they are driven to lower abstraction levels (Pfeiffer et al, 2014).…”

Improving temporal consistency of preferences: The influence of mental construal

“…Since non-alignable attributes, which have no corresponding features in the other alternative, require an abstract mental representation, they are emphasized more with high-level construal. Likewise, alignable attributes, which are comparable features with the other alternative requires a concrete representation; hence they are emphasized more with low-level construal ( Pfeiffer et al, 2014 ; Trope & Liberman, 2010 ). Consequently, alignable better alternatives are preferred when construal level is low and non-alignable better alternatives are preferred when construal level is high ( Malkoc, Zauberman, & Ulu, 2005 ).…”