Effects of Construal Level on Omission Detection and Multiattribute Evaluation

Consumers often rely on limited information that is readily available while neglecting missing information. Research has demonstrated that insensitivity to missing information results in inappropriately extreme judgments and detecting omissions is surprisingly difficult (Sanbonmatsu et al. 1991; 1992; 1997). As with all judgment biases, it is important to have an understanding about situational differences that may differentially impact decision making. Although people frequently neglect omissions, a growing body of evidence has shown that sensitivity to omissions can be heightened under certain conditions (Kardes et al., 2006; Sanbonmatsu et al., 1991, 1992, 1997, 2003). A variable that should be keenly important in omission detection is construal level. Research has indicated that people construe situations along a continuum from abstract to concrete and that this impacts the decision process (Trope & Liberman, 2000, 2003, 2010; Liberman & Trope 2008). Construal level theory would suggest that omission detection may depend on the level to which a judgment is construed and possibly even whether the missing attribute information is related to primary or secondary features. Lower-level construals result in more detailed or local processing while higher-level construals result in more holistic or global processing (Förster, 2009; Förster et al., 2009; Liberman & Förster, 2009). Because omission detection requires effortful, analytic processing (Sanbonmatsu et al., 1991), omission detection should be more likely in near-future evaluations than in distant-future evaluations.