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cognition
You think of future plans in impossible terms.
Construal level theory explains that the more distant an event is, the more abstractly you represent it.
When you plan a goal for next year, you focus on the 'why' and the broad outcome. As the date approaches, your brain shifts to the 'how' and the concrete, often frustrating, logistics.
The future looks simple because you are viewing it from a distance.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Trope and Liberman, 2010, Construal Level Theory
- What the check found
- The claim accurately reflects the core thesis of Trope and Liberman's work, which identifies temporal distance as a primary factor in high-level (abstract) versus low-level (concrete) mental construal.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.