The Role of Elaboration Moderating the Effects of Temporal Construal on Evaluation

Abstract

The Construal Level Theory posits that future events are differentially

construed, and thus evaluated, as a function of whether they are to be experienced

in the near or distant future. We explore the question of when

temporal distance influences evaluation, testing three alternative hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that temporal distance only influences evaluation

under thoughtful conditions. Although temporal construal effects

emerge either for individuals high in need for cognition (study 1) or when

individuals carefully think (study 2), they do not emerge for individuals

low in need for cognition, nor when individuals do not engage in effortful

thinking.