Hypotheticality and Level of Construal

Construal level theory suggests that less likely, more distant counterfactual events and actions will be represented more abstractly. However, the effect of hypotheticality on level of construal has been studied less than the effect of other dimensions of psychological distance (time, space, social distance) and recently did not replicate in two experiments (Calderon et al. 2020). Two sets of pre-registered studies attempted to close this empirical gap. In the first set, participants described more and less likely events in their life. Participants rated the mental representations of the less likely, more distant counterfactual events as being less clear and detailed. Text analysis revealed also that the descriptions of those events were less concrete. In the second set of studies, participants completed the Behavioral Identification Form, in which they chose between abstract and concrete descriptions of actions. Participants preferred to describe actions that were only a hypothetical possibility by their abstract means and actions that were actually performed by their concrete means, whether hypotheticality was manipulated within- or between-participants. We discuss potential difficulties of manipulating hypotheticality and suggest how to overcome them. We address, more generally, the nature of hypotheticality and how it is both similar to and different from other psychological distances.