CAUSAL UNCERTAINTY PROMPTS ABSTRACT CONSTRUAL OF BEHAVIOR

• Published in: Social cognition Vol. 30; no. 5; pp. 519 - 536
• Main Authors: HELZER, Erik G, EDWARDS, John A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Guilford 01.10.2012; Guilford Press
• Subjects: Behavioral psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Chronically; Cognitive psychology; Construal; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Perception; Preferences; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social attribution, perception and cognition; Social psychology; Traits; Uncertainty; Belief; Human; Uncertainty; Priming effect; Information processing; Inference; Strategy; Cognition; Causality; Comprehension; Social cognition
• ISSN: 0278-016X; 1943-2798
• DOI: 10.1521/soco.2012.30.5.519

When people experience Causal Uncertainty (CU; the sense that they have failed to understand the causal structure of the social world) they search for information that will restore their understanding. Three studies explore information processing strategies that guide this search. We hypothesized that CU would promote abstract construal of behavioral information. In Study 1, CU promoted faster spontaneous trait inferences; in Studies 2 and 3, individuals with chronically activated CU beliefs, and those primed with CU, showed broader unitization of the behavioral stream (Study 2) and increased preference for abstract construal of behaviors (Study 3). We argue that these strategies reflect a search for diagnostic causal information about the social world. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]