Sofia Calderon, Erik Mac Giolla, Karl Ask, Susanne Jana Adler, Jens Agerström, Burcu Akpınar, Nihan Albayrak, Francesca Romana Alparone, Shahrazad Amin, Antonio Aquino, Melissa Bachet, Baisile Baisile, Karin M. Bausenhart, Magali Beylat, Olga Bialobrzeska, Eliana C. Bloomfield, Lea Boecker, Matteo Bonora, Shannon T. Brady, Jared G. Branch, Nicole E. Brandy, Kelley T. Bui, Mariela Bustos-Ortega, Amparo Caballero, Andi Cai, Katarzyna Cantarero, Stephanie A. Cárdenas, Pilar Carrera, Jung-Tzu Chang, Hsuan-Fu Chao, Andrew G. Christy, Jennifer A. Cook, Junhua Dang, Scott Danielson, William E. Davis, Cara de Boer, Elise de Groot, Jaye L. Derrick, Sarah Dittmar, Tim Döring, Céline Douilliez, Martin Egger, Yannik A. Escher, Thomas Rhys Evans, Sofia Fabiani, Gilad Feldman, Nicole Fernandez, Julia Fischer, Magdalena Formanowicz, Malte Friese, Paul T. Fuglestad, Aurore Gaboriaud, Jessica Gale, Richard Gamrát, Oliver Genschow, Omid Ghasemi, Mauro Giacomantonio, Karolin Gieseler, Hedy Greijdanus, Siobhán Mary Griffin, Doğa Gül, Gul Gunaydin, Simona Haasova, Georgios Halkias, Christopher E. Hawk, Anna Helfers, Cindy L. Hernandez, Yanine D. Hess, Petr J. Horgos, Yehor Hrymchak, Markus Huff, Ezgi Ildırım, Biljana Jokić, Yoann Julliard, Pavol Kacˇmár, Barbara Kaup, Hyunji Kim, Kyungmi Kim, Alan Kingstone, Kenan Koç, Lina Koppel, Anita Körner, Bibiána Kovácˇová Holevová, Paul Danielle Labor, Bronwyn D. Laforet, Fanny Lalot, Leonie Lamm, Sean M. Laurent, Sean T. H. Lee, Yi-Chen Lee, Edward P. Lemay, Zhicheng Lin, Yun-Kai Lin, Jia-Xin Long, David D. Loschelder, Katerina Makri, Harry Manley, Nicolò Maugeri, Randy J. McCarthy, Cillian McHugh
Construal level theory (CLT) proposes that psychological distance influences the level of abstraction at which something is mentally construed: things perceived as less probable (likelihood) or further away from the here (spatial distance), now (temporal distance), or self (social distance) are thought about more abstractly. This international multi-lab study tests four basic hypotheses derived from core assumptions of CLT and explores potential moderators and boundary conditions of the effects. Participants (N = 11,775) from 27 countries and regions were randomly assigned to one of four experimental protocols focused on different types of psychological distance (temporal, spatial, social, or likelihood), and each experiment manipulated psychological distance (close vs. distant). The protocols for temporal distance (N = 2,941) and spatial distance (N = 2,973) were direct replications of Liberman and Trope (1998, Study 1) and Fujita et al. (2006, Study 1), respectively. The remaining two protocols were paradigmatic replications, applying to social distance (N = 2,926) and likelihood (N = 2,936). The effects of psychological distance on construal level for the four present studies were (original effects within parentheses; positive effects are consistent with hypotheses): dtemporal = 0.08, 95% CI [0.003, 0.16] (cf. d = 0.92); dspatial = 0.04, 95% CI [-0.03, 0.11] (cf. d = 0.55); dsocial = -0.27, 95% CI [-0.34, -0.19]; and dlikelihood = 0.03, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.11]. Pretests indicated that valence and abstraction were confounded in response options on the outcome measure. Controlling for this confound eliminated the hypothesis-inconsistent effect of social distance, d = 0.006, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.07]. These findings provide limited evidence for the predictions of the theory and present a critical challenge for CLT.