Determinants of spontaneous inferences in person perception from the perspective of construal level theory

Abstract

In the present study, we examined whether assessments of psychological distance based on the observation of behavioral events affect spontaneous trait and goal inferences. The extent to which such spontaneously inferred traits influence an individual’s predictions about an actor’s future behavior was also determined. Four experiments showed that perceivers were more likely to form spontaneous trait inferences about psychologically distant actors than psychologically near actors. Conversely, perceivers were more likely to form spontaneous goal inferences about psychologically near actors than psychologically distant actors. In addition, perceivers tended to make more trait-based behavioral predictions about psychologically distant actors than psychologically near actors. These results suggest that psychological distance determines the construal levels at which behavioral events are represented, and therefore, whether goals or traits are focused on. We also discussed the context sensitivity of implicit inferences and its unconscious influence on explicit judgments.