---
slug: construal_level
name: Construal Level
one_liner: "The distance-invariant genus of which temporal discounting is one slice: how something is mentally represented — and how heavily it is weighted — depends systematically on its psychological DISTANCE from the here-and-now (in time, space, social relation, or hypotheticality), with greater distance yielding more abstract, gist-level construal and attenuated weight."
type: prime
schema_version: 2
status: density_v2_draft
categories: [structural, psychological, decision_theory]
origin_domain: social_psychology
alternate_origin_domains: [decision_theory, behavioral_economics, forecasting, moral_psychology]
aliases: [psychological_distance, construal_level_theory, distance_dependent_construal, distance_dependent_weighting, distance_dependent_discounting]
related: []
solution_archetypes: []
review_flags:
- "OPERATOR-DERIVED (op-11 analogy completion) — obtained by completing `spatial_distance : perceived_size :: time_preference_discounting_future : construal_level`, i.e. as the cross-relational GENERALIZATION of temporal discounting from the time axis to a distance-INVARIANT pattern spanning time, space, social relation, and hypotheticality. Discovered 2026-07-04. MODERATE hold (verified absent from corpus; established scientific name — Construal Level Theory, Trope & Liberman 2010). STATUS: HOLD pending owner keep/cut."
- "Created 2026-07-04; STUB ONLY (frontmatter + Core Idea + Notes). SI/SF/similarity are PROPOSER ESTIMATES pending triangulation. Body sections (Structural Signature onward) NOT written."
- "Phase-C action: re-similarity-check vs `time_preference_discounting_future` (the input / TIME-axis special case — argue genus-vs-species, keep this as the genus, do NOT merge) and `abstraction` (construal level ADDS the distance-dependence a bare abstract/concrete axis lacks); screen also vs `discounting`, `framing`, and any social-distance / in_group_out_group primes; consider a domain-neutral rename to `distance_dependent_weighting` to shed the social-psych framing; if kept, draw a subsumption edge construal_level → time_preference_discounting_future (genus → species) plus sibling edges to the spatial / social / probability discounting instances; write a v1 draft and sync the one_liner across v1/v2 per CLAUDE.md before merge."
substrate_independence:
  composite_substrate_independence: 3
  domain_breadth: 4
  structural_abstraction: 3
  transfer_evidence: 4
  reasoning: 'The bare structure — a set of interchangeable distance dimensions (time, space, social relation, hypotheticality) along which mental representation shifts from concrete/detailed/feasibility-focused (near) to abstract/schematic/gist-level (far), with value and vividness attenuating as distance grows — is a genuinely cross-dimensional form of which temporal discounting is one slice. domain_breadth scores 4: the same distance→abstraction→weight law is documented on the time axis (intertemporal choice), the spatial axis (spatial discounting), the social axis (empathy gradients, self vs distant other, moral circle), and the probability axis (risk/hypotheticality weighting), which are structurally-unlike siblings sharing only the abstract distance-law. structural_abstraction is 3 rather than higher because the construct still leans on human-representational vocabulary — "construal," "vividness," "psychological distance" — and its cleanest evidence base is human judgment; the underlying "distance governs abstraction and weight" skeleton is portable, but the framing carries a mild psychological residue that keeps it off the structural ceiling. Transfer evidence is strong: CLT is a canonical, independently-named theory replicated across the four distance axes.'
similarity_to_nearest_existing_prime:
  slug: time_preference_discounting_future
  similarity: 0.6
structural_framed:
  label: mixed
  aggregate: 0.47
  criteria: {vocab_travels: 0.55, evaluative_weight: 0.4, institutional_origin: 0.2, human_practice_bound: 0.5, import_vs_recognize: 0.55}
  rationale: 'Reads MIXED. The load-bearing skeleton — interchangeable distance dimensions governing a shift between concrete and abstract construal and an attenuation of weight — travels cleanly into intertemporal choice, spatial decision-making, and probability weighting, where it is recognized rather than imported. But the surface vocabulary ("construal," "psychological distance," "vividness," empathy gradients) is social-psychological and partly human-practice-bound, and the richest evidence is human judgment, so human_practice_bound and import_vs_recognize sit mid-range and the aggregate lands near the middle rather than in structural territory. A domain-neutral rename (`distance_dependent_weighting`) would pull the label toward structural; as named, it is genuinely mixed — comparable framing to its species `time_preference_discounting_future` but with a heavier representational residue.'
phase_b_passes_completed: []
---
# Construal Level

## Core Idea

Construal level (psychological distance) is the distance-invariant *genus* of which temporal discounting is only one species. Base-level `time_preference_discounting_future` names a single fact: the weight placed on an outcome falls as it recedes into the future — value attenuates along the *time* axis. Construal level lifts that fact off its one axis. The claim is that the way something is mentally represented — and how heavily it is weighted — depends systematically on its *distance* from the here-and-now along *any* of several interchangeable dimensions: time (near vs far future), space (near vs far), social relation (self vs other, in-group vs out-group, near vs distant other), and hypotheticality (likely vs unlikely). Temporal discounting is what this general law looks like when the distance dimension happens to be time; spatial, social, and probability discounting are what it looks like on the other three.

The load-bearing anatomy has three parts the single-axis prime does not carry. First, the distance dimensions are *interchangeable and trade off*: they behave equivalently, and increasing distance on one dimension shifts construal the same way increasing it on another does. Second, distance governs *level of construal*: greater distance yields a more ABSTRACT, schematic, gist-level, desirability-focused representation, while nearness yields a more CONCRETE, detailed, feasibility-focused one — the near future is a to-do list, the far future is a purpose. Third, distance governs *weight*: value, vividness, and motivational pull attenuate as distance grows, and the level of construal and the distance are mutually reinforcing. Pure discounting captures only the third part, and only on the time axis; a bare `abstraction` prime captures the abstract/concrete contrast but not its *dependence on distance*. Construal level is exactly the conjunction the base primes leave unnamed: distance → abstraction → weight, holding across four interchangeable distance dimensions at once.

Read structurally, the same distance-law recurs across genuinely unlike siblings. In *intertemporal choice*, it is temporal discounting (the time slice). In *spatial decision-making*, it is spatial discounting — nearer options loom larger and are represented more concretely. In *social judgment and moral psychology*, it is the empathy gradient and the moral circle — the self and near others are construed concretely and weighted heavily, distant others abstractly and lightly. In *risk and forecasting*, it is probability weighting and the near/detailed vs far/schematic split in prediction: an unlikely or far-off event is represented in gist, a likely or imminent one in feasibility detail. Across these, the shared abstract engine is one law — distance, on any of its interchangeable dimensions, drives construal from concrete toward abstract and weight from full toward attenuated. The temporal case the corpus already names is one instance of the genus; the structurally-unlike siblings show the genus is the bare distance-dependent-construal structure.

## Notes

**Provenance.** Produced by operator 11 (analogy completion), by completing the proportion `spatial_distance : perceived_size :: time_preference_discounting_future : construal_level` — i.e. as the cross-relational GENERALIZATION of temporal discounting from the single time dimension to a distance-invariant pattern that runs the same law on space, social relation, and hypotheticality, and adds the abstraction-level shift that pure discounting omits. Surfaced 2026-07-04. Established scientific construct: Construal Level Theory (Trope & Liberman 2010, "Construal-Level Theory of Psychological Distance," *Psychological Review*); "psychological distance"; distance-dependent discounting. Claimed siblings: temporal discounting (time), spatial discounting (space), empathy gradients / self-vs-distant-other and the moral circle (social), and probability/hypotheticality weighting (risk, forecasting). Verified absent from the corpus (only the temporal slice, `time_preference_discounting_future`, is present). Manifest: MODERATE hold.

**For owner evaluation (keep/cut).** The case FOR: construal level is a *canonical, named scientific theory* (CLT — not a proposer coinage), verified absent, and a genuine *genus* that unifies temporal, spatial, social, and probability discounting — a family for which the corpus currently holds only the temporal member — while adding the distance-dependent abstraction shift that discounting alone does not capture. It was reached by op-11 as a cross-relational generalization that no single axis-move (temporalization, spatialization) produces on its own. The RISKS Kurt should weigh: (1) **closeness to `time_preference_discounting_future`** — the discriminating claim is genus-vs-species: temporal discounting is *one distance dimension*; construal level is the distance-*invariant* law across all four, plus the abstraction shift, so this should be *kept as the genus* with a subsumption edge drawn to the existing time-axis prime, not merged into it. (2) **Closeness to `abstraction`** — construal level *involves* an abstract-vs-concrete axis but adds its *dependence on distance*; a bare `abstraction` prime lacks the distance-governs-abstraction law, so this is a genuine addition, not a restatement. (3) **Framing / naming** — the social-psych surface vocabulary ("construal," "psychological distance," empathy gradients) is heavier than the structural skeleton; a domain-neutral name such as `distance_dependent_weighting` would better expose the genus and pull the SF label toward structural. Sharp keep/cut question: *is "distance governs abstraction and weight across interchangeable dimensions" a distinct prime, or is it just temporal discounting plus abstraction bolted together?* — the proposer's answer is that the *interchangeability of four distance dimensions under a single law*, together with the distance→construal-level coupling, is a form neither base prime names.

**At incorporation.** Re-run similarity against `time_preference_discounting_future` (input / TIME-axis species — confirm genus-vs-species, not collapse), `abstraction` (confirm the distance-dependence is the added feature), `discounting`, `framing`, and any social-distance / `in_group_out_group` primes to confirm no merger. If kept: draw a subsumption edge `construal_level` → `time_preference_discounting_future` (genus → species) and sibling edges to the spatial, social, and probability-discounting instances (or the primes carrying them); add a missing-edge note flagging the `abstraction` mechanism relationship (distance → level of construal) explicitly. Decide the name — `construal_level` (canonical) vs a domain-neutral `distance_dependent_weighting` (better SF label) — before merge. Write a v1 draft and sync the one_liner across v1 and v2 per CLAUDE.md before merge.
