The Effect of Self-Construal on Spatial Judgments

Much prior literature has focused on the effect of self-construal on social judgment. We highlight the role of self-construal in spatial judgments. We show that individuals with independent (vs. interdependent) self-construals are more prone to spatial judgment biases in tasks in which the context needs to be included in processing; they are less prone to spatial judgment biases in tasks in which the context needs to be excluded in processing. We show such spatial judgment effects when self-construal is operationalized by different cultures (study 1) and as a construct that shifts with situational primes (studies 2 and 3). (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..