The influence of construal level and achievement goal on prediction

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of construal level and achievement goal on predictions of how long it would take to complete an academic task. According to Construal Level Theory (Liberman & Trope, 2008; Trope & Liberman, 2010), when we predict the distant future (i.e., we construe the future in abstract features) , those predictions are based on abstract information. We hypothesized that participants who reported a stronger achievement goal predicted that they would spend a greater amount of time on the task when they construed the task abstractly. Two experiments tested the hypothesis. First, we assessed a participant's achievement goals. Then, we manipulated their construal level (e.g., the deadlines for submission of an essay: experiment 1), and asked them to estimate the amount of study time required. The results of the two experiments supported our hypothesis. The role of construal level on predictions is discussed.