Citation

Henderson MD, Wakslak CJ. Person. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 2010; 36(7): 975-985.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0146167210367490

PMID

20495093

Abstract

Semantic primes influence the impressions and evaluations people form of others. According to construal level theory (CLT), as stimuli get closer psychologically (e.g., physically, probabilistically), people construe stimuli in more concrete, localized, individuating terms. Across three studies, the authors present participants with individuals performing behaviors (skydiving, motor biking) that are ambiguous with respect to being either adventurous or reckless. Using a CLT framework, the authors show that people are more likely to assimilate their judgments of others to available semantic primes for psychologically close rather than distant targets (Studies 1 and 2). Conversely, they show that general, global attitudes drive evaluations more for distant rather than close targets (Study 3). Implications for priming more broadly are discussed.

Language: en