The influence of abstract and concrete mindsets on anticipating and guiding others' self-regulatory efforts ☆

By Antonio L. Freitas, Peter M. Gollwitzer, Yaacov Trope. 2004

680 citations recorded by the source corpus.

To investigate how people anticipate and attempt to shape others' self-regulatory efforts, this work examined the impact of abstract and concrete mindsets on attention to goal-relevant aspects of others' situations. An abstract (relative to a concrete) mindset, by making accessible the cognitive operation of considering activities' purpose (versus process) was predicted to focus attention on how others' self-evaluative situations could impact others' long-term aims of self-knowledge and self-improvement, thus facilitating the anticipation and preference that others pursue accurate, even self-critical, feedback. Participants in an abstract (relative to a concrete) mindset both anticipated (Experiment 1) and suggested (Experiments 2a and b) that others pursue realistic rather than overly positive self-relevant information, with the latter effect apparently explained by the salience of abstract versus concrete goal-relevant features of others' situations (Experiment 2b). Implications for self-regulatory mindsets, as well as for in- terpersonal relations, are discussed.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d504c8b89f6fa3c548002704cd4e936d3a52fe18

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Citations in the corpus

Unstuck from the concrete: Carryover effects of abstract mindsets in intertemporal preferences (2010, methodology): “…S. A., et al. Unstuck from the concret ganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (2010), doi:10.1016/j.obhd including self control (Fujita, Trope, Liberman, & Levin-Sagi, 2006), self regulation (Freitas et al., 2004), and activity enactment (Liberman, Trope, Macrae, & Sherman, 2007).”
Effects of Construal Level on the Price-Quality Relationship (2011, background): “Phase 1 manipulated construal level by asking participants to think about and write either why we should do exercises or how to exercise (Freitas, Gollwitzer, and Trope 2004).”
Entrepreneurial mindset: Dispositional beliefs, opportunity beliefs, and entrepreneurial behavior (2021, methodology): “…those found in the broader mindset literature, which suggests that two broad sources of information influence the content of a mindset—cognitive sources (for example, Freitas et al., 2004; Gollwitzer et al., 1990) and dispositional sources (for example, Audi, 1994; Ryle, 1949; Schwitzgebel, 2010).”
When Mental Simulation Hinders Behavior: The Effects of Process-Oriented Thinking on Decision Difficulty and Performance (2009, neutral): “Means-end Process 18 26 56 Outcome 26 41 33 End benefits Process 16 21 63 Outcome 17 17 66 quent tasks (Freitas et al. 2004).”
Is There a Substitute for Direct Experience? Comparing Consumers’ Preferences after Direct and Indirect Product Experiences (2007, methodology): “Mental construal was manipulated using an elaboration task unrelated to the experimental task (Freitas, Gollwitzer, and Trope 2004).”
Carryover Effects of Self-Control on Decision Making: A Construal-Level Perspective (2011, methodology): “Specifically, after participants completed the prior self-control manipulation, we primed them with a why mind-set that encouraged higher levels of construal (Freitas et al. 2004).”
Attributes Versus Benefits: The Role of Construal Levels and Appeal Type on the Persuasiveness of Marketing Messages (2015, methodology): “The thoughts were structured through a diagram that required participants to think either more abstractly about the activity (high construal) or more concretely (low construal) about the activity (for details please see Freitas, Gollwitzer, and Trope 2004).”
Constructive and Unconstructive Repetitive Thought (2008, background): “Similarly, actions, events, and goals can be represented in terms of high-level or low-level construals: Representations of the abstract “why” aspects of an action and of the ends consequential to an action constitute relatively high-level construals, whereas representations of the specific “how” de”
Years, Months, and Days versus 1, 12, and 365: The Influence of Units versus Numbers (2012, methodology): “Following an established procedure (Freitas et al. 2004), we told participants in the concrete mind-set condition that certain behaviors can help them achieve their broader life goals and that by responding to a sequence of “how” questions, they will be able to identify these behaviors.”