title: Effects of Psychological Distance and Need for Cognitive Closure on Impression Formation.
abstract: Based on theoretical and empirical similarities between Construal level theory of psychological distance and the Need for cognitive closure (NFC) theory, it could be hypothesized that psychological distance and NFC represent constructs that overlap to some degree. Since both theories describe judgmental behavior in terms of schematic processing, we hypothesized that primacy effect, a schema-driven phenomenon, is strengthened under the heightened NFC and psychological distance. We tested this hypothesis in an impression formation experiment while manipulating psychological distance and measuring NFC. Low NFC and psychological closeness reflect preference for situationally specific, contextually rich information, and therefore their joint effect resulted in reliance on all available information regardless of their position in a sequence. High NFC and psychological distance produced a preference for clear, schematic, stable knowledge, and therefore weighed first information more, which resulted in the primacy effect.
authors.affiliation: a University of Zagreb.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tomić
authors.affiliation: a University of Zagreb.
authors.forename: Mirjana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tonković
authors.affiliation: a University of Zagreb.
authors.forename: Dragutin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ivanec
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012929:Psychological Distance; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012649:Self Concept; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Construal level theory; need for cognitive closure; primacy effect