Department of Psychology, New York University, USA.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2013 Mar;104(3):457-72. doi: 10.1037/a0031024. Epub 2012 Dec 31.
When do people focus more on the causes versus the consequences of events, and how does differential focus affect downstream judgments and choices? Building on construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2010), we propose a bidirectional relationship between psychological distance and causal focus, such that distance (vs. proximity) leads to a greater focus on causes (vs. consequences), and likewise, focusing on causes (vs. consequences) leads to greater estimates of psychological distance from events. This should be the case because causes are features of events that are more high-level relative to consequences (as shown in Experiments 1 and 2). We demonstrate that temporal (Experiment 3) and social (Experiment 4) distances lead to a greater tendency to focus on the causes (vs. consequences) of events and that, conversely, thinking about causes (vs. consequences) leads to greater perceptions of temporal (Experiment 5) and spatial (Experiment 6) distances from events. Additionally, we explored some downstream effects of this distance-dependent focus on causes versus consequences for predictive judgments, experiences, and behavioral choice (Experiments 7, 8, and 9). Broader implications of the results for moral decision making, power and leadership, and self-regulation are discussed.
人们何时更关注事件的原因而非结果，以及不同的关注焦点如何影响下游的判断和选择？我们基于构念水平理论（Trope & Liberman，2010），提出心理距离和因果关注之间的双向关系，即距离（相对于接近）导致对原因（相对于结果）的更大关注，同样，关注原因（相对于结果）会导致对事件的心理距离的更大估计。这是因为原因是事件的特征，相对于结果而言，它们处于更高的层次（如实验 1 和 2 所示）。我们证明了时间（实验 3）和社会（实验 4）距离会导致人们更倾向于关注事件的原因（相对于结果），反之，思考原因（相对于结果）会导致人们对事件的时间（实验 5）和空间（实验 6）距离的感知更大。此外，我们还探讨了这种对因果关系的距离依赖关注对预测判断、体验和行为选择的一些下游影响（实验 7、8 和 9）。讨论了这些结果对道德决策、权力和领导力以及自我调节的更广泛影响。
