Abstract: Construal Level Theory is a theory about how different dimensions of psychological distance influence individual’s mental construal of objects, and how the abstractness or concreteness of construal determine individual’s judgment and decision making. A large amount of research have shown that people tend to construal psychologically distant objects in terms of high level, abstract and decontextualized aspects, whereas construal the same object in terms of low level, detailed and contextualized features if the object is psychologically near. Future research should discriminate among construal level itself, the operationalization of construal level and the antecedents of construal level. It is also important to include other psychological variables such as affect and motivation into the causal chain of psychological distance-construal level-preference and choice.

Key words: construal level theory, psychological distance, preference, judgment and decision