Time-Dependent Changes in Social Judgement and Choice

在日常生活中，人们会对在相对较近或较远的未来发生的事件做出判断和决定。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。该研究计划调查了未来事件的时间距离如何影响对这些事件的判断和决策。假设人们在考虑遥远的未来事件时会比考虑不久的未来事件时使用更多的抽象思维。因此，对遥远未来事件的判断和决策更可能基于相对一般的、上位的和脱离语境的特征，而对近期事件的判断和决策更可能基于事件的相对具体的、下位的和语境化的特征。一系列的实验将测试这一假设及其对信息处理、预测和对未来事件的偏好的时间依赖性变化的影响。研究结果预计将确定决策在不同时间点的优点和缺点，并最终帮助我们了解和改善人们思考，计划和选择未来的方式。

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.