Perceiving Distances and Construing Targets Based on Communication

Construal level theory states that the psychological distance to events and objects affects their construal level. But how do humans get to the psychological distance in the first place? We argue that language plays a key role. Communicating a distance typically requires a particular measurement unit, and the distance and its resolution affect the perceived psychological distance. There is an important difference between an invitation to a wedding on August 3rd and next summer. To substantiate our claims, we replicate the BIF task (n = 358) and the open-ended activity descriptions (n = 357) from Liberman and Trope (1998), and the concreteness in New York Times articles (n = 15,075) from Bhatia and Walasek (2016). We show the added value in understanding the effect of communicating distances, spotlighting its relevance for academic work that studies construal based on language or uses construal to explain further social situations.