Time-Dependent Changes in Social Judgement and Choice

在日常生活中，人们判断和决定将在相对较近或较远的未来发生的事件。例子包括关于未来教育、工作、亲密关系和健康相关事件的决定。这个研究项目调查了与未来事件的时间距离如何影响对这些事件的判断和决定。假设人们在考虑遥远的未来事件时会比考虑近期事件时使用更多的抽象思维。因此，关于遥远未来事件的判断和决定更可能基于相对一般的、上级的和非情境化的特征，而关于近期事件的判断和决定更可能基于事件的相对具体的、下级的和情境化的特征。一系列的实验将验证这一假设及其对信息处理、预测和对未来事件偏好的时间依赖性变化的影响。研究结果有望确定不同时间点决策的利弊，并最终帮助我们理解和改进人们思考、计划和对未来做出选择的方式。

In everyday life, people judge and make decisions about events that will take place either in the relatively near or distant future. Examples include decisions about future education, jobs, close relationships, and health-related events. This program of research investigates how temporal distance from future events influences judgments and decisions regarding those events. It is hypothesized that people will use more abstract thinking when considering distant future events than when considering near future events. As a result, judgments and decisions regarding distant future events are more likely to be based on relatively general, superordinate, and decontextualized features, whereas judgments and decisions regarding near future events are more likely to be based on relatively specific, subordinate, and contextualized features of the events. A series of experiments will test this hypothesis and its implications for time-dependent changes in information processing, predictions, and preferences regarding future events. The findings are expected to identify advantages and disadvantages of decisions at different points in time, and will ultimately help us understand and improve the way people think, plan, and make choices about their future.