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When does feeling of fluency matter?: how abstract and concrete thinking influence fluency effects
1Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. claire.tsai@rotman.utoronto.ca
Psychological Science
|February 11, 2011
Summary
Abstract thinking can change how easily processed information affects liking. People thinking abstractly may like things less if fluency is incidental, but more if fluency signals value.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Information processing fluency typically enhances positive evaluations.
- The influence of fluency on judgment may depend on cognitive construal levels.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how abstract versus concrete thinking influences the relationship between processing fluency and evaluative judgments.
- To determine if abstract thinking moderates the impact of fluency on liking.
Main Methods:
- Three studies were conducted involving participants primed to think abstractly or concretely.
- Participants completed tasks measuring processing fluency and subsequent evaluative judgments.
- Study 3 manipulated the perceived diagnosticity of fluency as a signal of value.
Main Results:
- Priming abstract thinking significantly mitigated the positive effect of fluency on evaluations in Studies 1 and 2.
- In Study 3, abstract thinkers showed increased liking when fluency was perceived as a signal of value.
- Concrete thinkers consistently showed the typical fluency-liking effect across studies.
Conclusions:
- Abstract thinking can decouple the link between processing fluency and positive evaluation.
- Cognitive construal level influences whether fluency is treated as diagnostic or incidental information.
- Abstract thought allows for more flexible integration or rejection of fluency-based affect in judgments.
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