Are you faster on a bridge or a volcano? The effects of linguistic concreteness on Construal Level Theory

Abstract

The present research aimed to get a better understanding of the relation between linguistic concreteness and Construal Level Theory. Two studies were conducted to determine whether linguistic concreteness affects the association between psychological distance and construal level. Study 1 used a rating task and demonstrated that linguistic concreteness does not depend on psychological distance, and that the dimensions of psychological distance are not similar. Study 2 used an Implicit Association Test to provide evidence for the claim that concrete language can speed up response times in low construal level and proximity pairings, and that abstract language can speed up response times in high-construal level and distance pairings. Abstract language did influence the pairings as expected, whereas concrete language did not. These findings suggest that linguistic concreteness can facilitate the association between psychological distance and construal level, but only under certain – yet undiscovered – circumstances.