Cognitive Bridging: Tests of the Induced and Integrated Processes

• In Event: Persuasion II: Message Features

Abstract

This study investigates cognitive abstraction from the perspective of construal level theory, juxtaposing two methods of encouraging the bridging of abstract goals with the specific means to achieve them. Across two experiments, utilizing different ways of manipulating cognitive abstraction, we demonstrate that participants who receive an induced bridging technique are more likely to produce cognitive bridging outputs and have more abstract responses than participants who did not receive a bridging technique. Alternatively, we do not find these results among participants who experience an integrated bridging technique. Theoretically, this provides evidence for the induced process, rather than the integrated process, of construal level influence on cognitive bridging. This article replicates and extends earlier work on cognitive bridging, and it concludes with implications for the design of persuasive messages.

Authors

• Sherri Jean Katz, U of Minnesota

• Sahara Byrne, Cornell U