TY - JOUR
T1 - From “me” to “we”
T2 - The role of construal level in promoting maximized joint outcomes
AU - Stillman, Paul E.
AU - Fujita, Kentaro
AU - Sheldon, Oliver
AU - Trope, Yaacov
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Paul Stillman, a National Science Foundation award to Kentaro Fujita (#1626733), a National Science Foundation award to Yaacov Trope (#1349067), and grants from the Templeton Foundation's Philosophy and Science of Self-Control Project (Prime Award #15462; Subaward #SC18) to Kentaro Fujita.
Funding Information:
This work was funded in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Paul Stillman, a National Science Foundation award to Kentaro Fujita ( #1626733 ), a National Science Foundation award to Yaacov Trope ( #1349067 ), and grants from the Templeton Foundation’s Philosophy and Science of Self-Control Project (Prime Award # 15462 ; Subaward #SC18) to Kentaro Fujita.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2018/7
Y1 - 2018/7
N2 - To minimize waste and inefficiencies, research has sought to understand under what circumstances decision-makers tasked with allocating outcomes to self and others maximize joint outcomes – making decisions that provide the greatest net gain across all vested stakeholders, irrespective of beneficiary. We explore construal level as a critical cognitive mechanism. We hypothesize that high-level construal – a representational process that expands mental scope by broadening attention to global, gestalt wholes – relative to low-level construal – a representational process that contracts mental scope by narrowing attention to local, idiosyncratic elements – should facilitate sensitivity to the welfare of the collective unit relative to specific individuals. Four experiments demonstrate that high-level relative to low-level construal promotes decisions that maximize joint outcomes, irrespective of beneficiary. These findings contribute to a growing literature examining factors that influence consideration of joint outcomes by highlighting construal level as a key cognitive antecedent, with theoretical and practical implications.
AB - To minimize waste and inefficiencies, research has sought to understand under what circumstances decision-makers tasked with allocating outcomes to self and others maximize joint outcomes – making decisions that provide the greatest net gain across all vested stakeholders, irrespective of beneficiary. We explore construal level as a critical cognitive mechanism. We hypothesize that high-level construal – a representational process that expands mental scope by broadening attention to global, gestalt wholes – relative to low-level construal – a representational process that contracts mental scope by narrowing attention to local, idiosyncratic elements – should facilitate sensitivity to the welfare of the collective unit relative to specific individuals. Four experiments demonstrate that high-level relative to low-level construal promotes decisions that maximize joint outcomes, irrespective of beneficiary. These findings contribute to a growing literature examining factors that influence consideration of joint outcomes by highlighting construal level as a key cognitive antecedent, with theoretical and practical implications.
KW - Construal level theory
KW - Efficiency
KW - Maximizing joint outcomes
KW - Mixed-motive social dilemmas
KW - Psychological distance
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U2 - 10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.05.004
DO - 10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.05.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85047980109
VL - 147
SP - 16
EP - 25
JO - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
JF - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
SN - 0749-5978
ER -