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Happy today, happy tomorrow: The (non-)effect of temporal distance on judgments of Life Satisfaction
Personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011) 1048–1051
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
Short Communication
Happy today, happy tomorrow: The (non-)effect of temporal distance on judgments of Life Satisfaction Danilo Garcia ⇑ University of Gothenburg, Sweden
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 18 April 2011 Received in revised form 21 July 2011 Accepted 31 July 2011 Available online 31 August 2011 Keywords: Construal Level Theory Constructive episodic simulation hypothesis Episodic memory Happiness Life Satisfaction Temporal distance
a b s t r a c t Construal Level Theory (CLT; Trope & Liberman, 2003) posits that everyday life predictions, evaluations, and choices are influenced by how near or distant in time the event is. However, judgments of Life Satisfaction (LS) are relatively weakly influenced by situational factors and relatively strongly influenced by personality factors. Moreover, the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis (Schacter & Addis, 2007a, 2007b) implies that memory of past events provides details for simulations of future novel experiences. Undergraduate students (N = 127) were randomly asked for how desirable LS was and for actual judgements of LS in the near- or distant-future. The results show that LS was more desirable in the distantfuture. Thus, indicating that LS is abstractly assessed and judgments of LS should therefore be influenced by temporal distance as predicted by CLT. However, no significant differences in actual LS were found between conditions. Implications for theory development are discussed. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Construal Level Theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003) posits that everyday life predictions, evaluations, and choices are influenced by how near or distant in time the event is. Temporal distance influences individuals’ responses to future events by changing the way they construe those events. Specifically, near events are constructed as more concrete, complex and contextualized (i.e., low level construals). In contrast, distant events are constructed as more abstract, simple and decontextualized (i.e., high level construals). As a consequence, because representations of distant events are abstract they receive higher value. An important difference between high-level and low-level construals is their emphasis on the desirability versus feasibility of outcomes. Desirability reflects the ‘‘why’’ (i.e., high level construal), whereas feasibility reflects the ‘‘how’’ (i.e., low level construal; Trope & Liberman, 2003). Indeed, Vallacher and Wegner (1987) suggest that ‘‘why’’ aspects are more abstract and better express meaning than ‘‘how’’ aspects. In this line of thinking, CLT then predicts that abstract representations should be more desirable in the distant-future than in the near-future. Most of the CLT research and findings are based on values and attitudes of near and distant events (for a review see Trope & Liberman, 2003). For example, using the country flag to clean the house is ⇑ Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 500, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden. E-mail address: [email protected] 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.07.031
seen as a bigger moral transgression if it happens 10 years from now than if it happens next week. People seem to more eagerly apply their moral principles to distant- rather than near-future behaviors (Eyal, Liberman, & Trope, 2008). In this context, ‘‘being moral’’ is probably a desirable abstract representation, thus receiving higher value in the distant-future. However, as explained by Eyal, Sagristano, Trope, Liberman, and Chaiken (2009, pp. 35): ‘‘like values, people’s attitudes and personality traits sometimes serve as fair predictors of their behavior, but at other times fail to do so’’. The question is then which future representations are not influenced in the same manner as values, ideologies, and moral principles. According to Schacter and Addis (2007a, 2007b) the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis contends that (1) episodic memory provides a source of details for future-event simulations and (2) the constructive nature of the episodic memory system allows the flexible recombination of such details into a coherent simulation of a novel event. Indeed, Addis and Schacter (2008) instructed participants to construct a past or future event and found that the left posterior hippocampus was receptive to the amount of detail comprising both past and future events. Thus, judgments about the future that involve episodic memory should not differ in regard to temporal distance, because episodic memory provides a source of details for future simulations. To test this assumption, the present study investigates judgments of Life Satisfaction (LS) in the context of CLT. As key indicator of Subjective Well-Being (SWB), LS refers to a comparison process in which individuals assess the quality of their lives on the basis of their
D. Garcia / Personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011) 1048–1051
own self-imposed standard (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Naturally, a wide range of information is probably used when individuals are asked to assess the subjective quality of their life. Strack, Schwarz, and Gschneidinger (1985; Experiment 2), for example, found that past events are more likely to be used as a standard of comparison for subsequent judgments of LS when participants were asked to describe past events in a few words (i.e., abstract description) than when they were asked to describe past events in detail (i.e., concrete description). Consequentially, Strack et al. (1985; Experiment 3) also found that when individuals are asked to explain ‘‘how’’ an event occurred, rather than ‘‘why’’, influences current mood which in turn influences subsequent judgments of LS in a mood congruent manner – ‘‘how’’ description of a positive event leads to positive judgments of LS, whereas a ‘‘how’’ description of a negative event leads to negative judgments of LS. These specific findings are in concordance with expectations arrived by the CLT. Nevertheless, in regard to LS, Lucas and Diener (2008, pp. 795) point out that ‘‘the relatively weak influence of situational factors and the relatively strong influence of personality factors is an important, counterintuitive finding that came as a considerable surprise to social psychologists’’. Moreover, Kim-Prieto, Diener, Tamir, Scollon, and Diener (2005) suggest that judgements of LS are based on previous life events that cause evaluative and emotional reactions. These reactions are then recalled when individuals judge their satisfaction with life. In other words, LS is a compelling construct to test the CLT and the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis; not only based on the well documented influence of personality on judgments of LS but also on the suggested use of memory of past events. The aim of the present study was twofold. Firstly, to investigate if LS is linked to high level construal by asking participants how desirable they found LS to be in the distant-future in contrast to the nearfuture. If LS is construed at a high level, then LS should be most desirable in the distant-future than in the near-future. The second aim was to investigate if temporal distance influences judgments of LS. Temporal condition (i.e., 1 week, 1 year, 10 years) was the independent variable, while the LS desirability and participants LS judgments were the dependent variable. If LS is an abstract judgment (more desirable in the distant- than in the near-future) then participants should expect higher LS in the distant- than in the nearfuture.
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desirability of LS in 1 week (e.g., ‘‘How desirable is it for you to be satisfied with your life in one week?’’; Cronbach’s a = .75; inter-item correlations .30–.65), for the 1 year condition items asked for desirability of LS in 1 year (e.g., ‘‘How desirable is it for you to be satisfied with your life in 1 year?’’; Cronbach’s a = .74; interitem correlations .36–.59), and for the 10 years condition the items asked for desirability of LS in 10 years (e.g., ‘‘How desirable is it for you to be satisfied with your life in 10 years?’’; Cronbach’s a = .77; inter-item correlations .32–.54). For each condition a desirability score was computed by simply summarizing the five items. Thus, a higher score stands for high desirability for LS. 2.3. Life Satisfaction The SWLS was manipulated by changing the temporal perspective in three ways: for the 1 week condition the items asked for judgements of LS in 1 week (e.g., ‘‘In one week I’ll be satisfied with my life’’; Cronbach’s a = .77; inter-item correlations .34–.57), for the 1 year condition items asked for LS in 1 year (e.g., ‘‘In one year I’ll be satisfied with my life’’; Cronbach’s a = .82; inter-item correlations .30–.59), and for the 10 years condition the items asked for LS in 10 years (e.g., ‘‘In ten years I’ll be satisfied with my life’’; Cronbach’s a = .80; inter-item correlations .33–.60). For each condition a LS score was computed by simply summarizing the five items. 3. Results
Undergraduate students at Linnaeus University, Sweden, participated in the study. Participants (65 men and 62 women, age mean 20.50 SD = 2.07) were randomly assigned to three different conditions: 1 week (n = 43), 1 year (n = 39), and 10 years (n = 45).
A temporal distance (1 week vs. 1 year vs. 10 years) gender between-subjects MANOVA was conducted in order to test differences in LS desirability and LS predictions. The main effect of gender was not significant (F(2,120) = 1.54, p = .22, Wilks’ Lambda = .98). There was a significant main effect of temporal distance (F(4,240) = 2.63, p < .05, Wilks’ Lambda = .92). The interaction of gender and temporal distance was not significant (F(4,240) = .29, p = .89, Wilks’ Lambda = .99), hence the effect of temporal distance was consistent across gender. The effect of temporal distance was significant for LS desirability (F(2,121) = 4.50, p < .01). A Bonferroni correction to the alpha level showed that LS was more desirable in 10 years (M = 23.07; SD = 5.35) than in one week (M = 20.14; SD = 5.45) and that in 1 year (M = 20.21; SD = 4.95). Thus indicating that LS is construe at a high level and should be influenced by temporal distance as predicted by CLT (see Fig. 1 for details). Nevertheless, the effect of temporal distance was non-significant for participants’ own judgments of LS (F(2,121) = 1.87, p = .16). In contrast to what CLT predicts, LS was judged equal in 1 week (M = 19.65; SD = 6.30), in 1 year (M = 18.18; SD = 5.92), and in 10 years (M = 20.78; SD = 5.85). See Fig. 2 for details.
2.1. Measures
4. Discussion
The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al., 1985) was presented in two different versions for each condition in order to measure both LS desirability and LS. The original SWLS consists of five statements (e.g., ‘‘I am satisfied with my life’’) and uses a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). Depending on the condition, participants were instructed to read the statements that had to do with their life in a week/1 year/ 10 years and to indicate grade of agreement using the 7-point scale.
An important contribution of the present study is that although LS is an abstract judgment and receives a higher value in the distant- than in the near-future, it seems not to be influenced by temporal distance as predicted by the CLT, perhaps, due to the close relationship between personality and LS. Nevertheless, temporal distance is suggested to affect the inferences we draw about ourselves (Trope & Liberman, 2003). Wakslak, Nussbaum, Liberman, and Trope (2008), for example, found that in the distant-future, compared with the near-future, individuals expect to exhibit their personality traits more consistently in different situations. Other explanations, than the strong influence of personality on LS, might therefore be valid. As proposed by the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis, memory of past events provides details for simulations of future
2. Method
2.2. Desirability for life satisfaction The SWLS was manipulated by changing the temporal perspective in three ways: for the 1 week condition the items asked for
1050
D. Garcia / Personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011) 1048–1051
Fig. 1. Mean desirability for Life Satisfaction Scores and 95% confidence intervals by 1 week, 1 year, and 10 years.
Fig. 2. Mean Life Satisfaction Scores and 95% confidence intervals by 1 week, 1 year, and 10 years Life Satisfaction (LS).
novel experiences (Addis & Schacter, 2008). Most CLT research, however, provides participants by hypothetical questions that may or may not involve episodic memory. For instance, judgments of moral transgression are often assessed by hypothetical moral dilemmas (e.g., Eyal et al., 2008). Trope and Lieberman (2003), suggest that temporal distance influences hypothetical and real events
differently. In contrast to hypothetical events, judgments of future LS are probably based on real episodic events from one’s own past. Nevertheless, while this finding is potentially interesting, there are always multiple explanations for null findings (i.e., low power for any of a number of reasons). In the present study the idea of mental time line and its role in representing past as well as future
D. Garcia / Personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011) 1048–1051
events was not considered. Arzy, Adi-Japha, and Blanke (2009) and Arzy, Collette, Ionta, Fornari, and Blanke (2009), for example, showed that that self-projection in time is a fundamental aspect of mental time. The idea of mental time line seems to guarantee the spatial nature of temporal representation with events placed near or distant according to the temporal position of an individual. Thus, in the present study this different self-projection on mental time line might have masked any proofs for CLT. Further studies should also take into account that, while LS is the cognitive part of SWB, positive and negative affect are the affective parts. According to affect-dependent time-discounting theories, it’s important to distinguish between cognition-based and affect-based value (Loewenstein, Weber, Hsee, & Welch, 2001). Thus, a remaining question is whether temporal distance influences the cognitive and affective parts of SWB differently. Additional studies should examine the influence of temporal distance in how feasible and probable individuals judge a happy life in the future. CLT suggests that individuals work harder for goals in the distant-future because feasibility receives less weight in distant-future goals. Thus, in contrast to what optimism would suggest, a positive outlook regarding future LS may reflect underweighting rather than overestimation of feasibility (Trope & Liberman, 2003). 5. Conclusions The findings presented here can actually be compared to those observations regarding distance- and size-perception made by the anthropologist Colin Turnbull among the BaMbuti Pygmies (Turnbull, 1961). In one of his trips in Congo on a high hill which had been cleared of trees, Turnbull and his companion Kenge a 22 year old Pygmy that never had been outside the middle of the Ituri Forest, looked over the plains and down to a herd of buffalo some miles away. Kenge asked what kind of insects they were. When Turnbull told him that they were buffalo, twice as big as the forest buffalo known to him, Kenge laughed and told Turnbull to not tell such stupid stories. As the two approached closer and Kenge watched the ‘‘insects’’ get larger and larger, he moved closer to Turnbull and muttered that it was witchcraft, and asked again what kind of insects they were. Turnbull suggested that the BaMbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Forest in the Congo were also psychologically conditioned by their environment. In a way, it seems that when it comes to happiness we are like Kenge (Gilbert, 2007). We base our representations or simulations of distant-future happiness on the forest of happiness
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or unhappiness we are accustomed to; time seems to be a friend or foe of ours.‘‘Time is on my side, yes it is’’ – The Rolling Stones Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg for supporting this research. I would also like to direct my gratitude to Erik Lindskär and Mitsuru Suzuki at Linnaeus University for their help collecting the data. References Addis, D. R., & Schacter, D. L. (2008). Effects of detail and temporal distance of past and future events on the engagement of a common neural network. Hippocampus, 18, 227–237. Arzy, S., Adi-Japha, E., & Blanke, O. (2009). The mental time line: An analogue of the mental number line in the mapping of life events. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, 781–785. Arzy, S., Collette, S., Ionta, S., Fornari, E., & Blanke, O. (2009). Subjective mental time line: The functional architecture of projecting the self to past and future. Cognitive Neuroscience, 30, 2009–2017. Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75. Eyal, T., Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2008). Judging near and distant virtue and vice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1204–1209. Eyal, T., Sagristano, M. D., Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Chaiken, S. (2009). When values matter: Expressing values in behavioral intentions for the near vs. distant future. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 35–43. Gilbert, D. (2007). Stumbling on happiness. London: Harpercollins Publishers. Kim-Prieto, C., Diener, E., Tamir, M., Scollon, C., & Diener, M. (2005). Integrating the diverse definitions of happiness: A time-sequential framework of subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 261–300. Loewenstein, G. F., Weber, E. U., Hsee, C. K., & Welch, N. (2001). Risk as feelings. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 267–286. Lucas, R. E., & Diener, E. (2008). Personality and Subjective Well-Being. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of Personality – Theory and Research (pp. 795–814). New York: The Guilford Press. Schacter, D. L., & Addis, D. R. (2007). The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory: Remembering the past and imagining the future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362, 773–786. Schacter, D. L., & Addis, D. R. (2007). The ghosts of past and future. Nature, 445, 27. Strack, F., Schwarz, N., & Gschneidinger, E. (1985). Happiness and reminiscing: The role of time perspective, affect, and mode of thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6, 1460–1469. Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2003). Temporal construal. Psychological Review, 3, 403–421. Turnbull, C. M. (1961). Some observations regarding the experiences and behavior of the BaMbuti Pygmies. American Journal of Psychology, 74, 304–308. Vallacher, R. R., & Wegner, D. M. (1987). What do people think they’re doing? Action identification and human behavior. Psychological Review, 94, 3–15. Wakslak, C. J., Nussbaum, S., Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2008). Representations of the self in the near and distant future. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 757–773.
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
Short Communication
Happy today, happy tomorrow: The (non-)effect of temporal distance on judgments of Life Satisfaction Danilo Garcia ⇑ University of Gothenburg, Sweden
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 18 April 2011 Received in revised form 21 July 2011 Accepted 31 July 2011 Available online 31 August 2011 Keywords: Construal Level Theory Constructive episodic simulation hypothesis Episodic memory Happiness Life Satisfaction Temporal distance
a b s t r a c t Construal Level Theory (CLT; Trope & Liberman, 2003) posits that everyday life predictions, evaluations, and choices are influenced by how near or distant in time the event is. However, judgments of Life Satisfaction (LS) are relatively weakly influenced by situational factors and relatively strongly influenced by personality factors. Moreover, the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis (Schacter & Addis, 2007a, 2007b) implies that memory of past events provides details for simulations of future novel experiences. Undergraduate students (N = 127) were randomly asked for how desirable LS was and for actual judgements of LS in the near- or distant-future. The results show that LS was more desirable in the distantfuture. Thus, indicating that LS is abstractly assessed and judgments of LS should therefore be influenced by temporal distance as predicted by CLT. However, no significant differences in actual LS were found between conditions. Implications for theory development are discussed. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Construal Level Theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003) posits that everyday life predictions, evaluations, and choices are influenced by how near or distant in time the event is. Temporal distance influences individuals’ responses to future events by changing the way they construe those events. Specifically, near events are constructed as more concrete, complex and contextualized (i.e., low level construals). In contrast, distant events are constructed as more abstract, simple and decontextualized (i.e., high level construals). As a consequence, because representations of distant events are abstract they receive higher value. An important difference between high-level and low-level construals is their emphasis on the desirability versus feasibility of outcomes. Desirability reflects the ‘‘why’’ (i.e., high level construal), whereas feasibility reflects the ‘‘how’’ (i.e., low level construal; Trope & Liberman, 2003). Indeed, Vallacher and Wegner (1987) suggest that ‘‘why’’ aspects are more abstract and better express meaning than ‘‘how’’ aspects. In this line of thinking, CLT then predicts that abstract representations should be more desirable in the distant-future than in the near-future. Most of the CLT research and findings are based on values and attitudes of near and distant events (for a review see Trope & Liberman, 2003). For example, using the country flag to clean the house is ⇑ Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 500, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden. E-mail address: [email protected] 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.07.031
seen as a bigger moral transgression if it happens 10 years from now than if it happens next week. People seem to more eagerly apply their moral principles to distant- rather than near-future behaviors (Eyal, Liberman, & Trope, 2008). In this context, ‘‘being moral’’ is probably a desirable abstract representation, thus receiving higher value in the distant-future. However, as explained by Eyal, Sagristano, Trope, Liberman, and Chaiken (2009, pp. 35): ‘‘like values, people’s attitudes and personality traits sometimes serve as fair predictors of their behavior, but at other times fail to do so’’. The question is then which future representations are not influenced in the same manner as values, ideologies, and moral principles. According to Schacter and Addis (2007a, 2007b) the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis contends that (1) episodic memory provides a source of details for future-event simulations and (2) the constructive nature of the episodic memory system allows the flexible recombination of such details into a coherent simulation of a novel event. Indeed, Addis and Schacter (2008) instructed participants to construct a past or future event and found that the left posterior hippocampus was receptive to the amount of detail comprising both past and future events. Thus, judgments about the future that involve episodic memory should not differ in regard to temporal distance, because episodic memory provides a source of details for future simulations. To test this assumption, the present study investigates judgments of Life Satisfaction (LS) in the context of CLT. As key indicator of Subjective Well-Being (SWB), LS refers to a comparison process in which individuals assess the quality of their lives on the basis of their
D. Garcia / Personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011) 1048–1051
own self-imposed standard (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Naturally, a wide range of information is probably used when individuals are asked to assess the subjective quality of their life. Strack, Schwarz, and Gschneidinger (1985; Experiment 2), for example, found that past events are more likely to be used as a standard of comparison for subsequent judgments of LS when participants were asked to describe past events in a few words (i.e., abstract description) than when they were asked to describe past events in detail (i.e., concrete description). Consequentially, Strack et al. (1985; Experiment 3) also found that when individuals are asked to explain ‘‘how’’ an event occurred, rather than ‘‘why’’, influences current mood which in turn influences subsequent judgments of LS in a mood congruent manner – ‘‘how’’ description of a positive event leads to positive judgments of LS, whereas a ‘‘how’’ description of a negative event leads to negative judgments of LS. These specific findings are in concordance with expectations arrived by the CLT. Nevertheless, in regard to LS, Lucas and Diener (2008, pp. 795) point out that ‘‘the relatively weak influence of situational factors and the relatively strong influence of personality factors is an important, counterintuitive finding that came as a considerable surprise to social psychologists’’. Moreover, Kim-Prieto, Diener, Tamir, Scollon, and Diener (2005) suggest that judgements of LS are based on previous life events that cause evaluative and emotional reactions. These reactions are then recalled when individuals judge their satisfaction with life. In other words, LS is a compelling construct to test the CLT and the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis; not only based on the well documented influence of personality on judgments of LS but also on the suggested use of memory of past events. The aim of the present study was twofold. Firstly, to investigate if LS is linked to high level construal by asking participants how desirable they found LS to be in the distant-future in contrast to the nearfuture. If LS is construed at a high level, then LS should be most desirable in the distant-future than in the near-future. The second aim was to investigate if temporal distance influences judgments of LS. Temporal condition (i.e., 1 week, 1 year, 10 years) was the independent variable, while the LS desirability and participants LS judgments were the dependent variable. If LS is an abstract judgment (more desirable in the distant- than in the near-future) then participants should expect higher LS in the distant- than in the nearfuture.
1049
desirability of LS in 1 week (e.g., ‘‘How desirable is it for you to be satisfied with your life in one week?’’; Cronbach’s a = .75; inter-item correlations .30–.65), for the 1 year condition items asked for desirability of LS in 1 year (e.g., ‘‘How desirable is it for you to be satisfied with your life in 1 year?’’; Cronbach’s a = .74; interitem correlations .36–.59), and for the 10 years condition the items asked for desirability of LS in 10 years (e.g., ‘‘How desirable is it for you to be satisfied with your life in 10 years?’’; Cronbach’s a = .77; inter-item correlations .32–.54). For each condition a desirability score was computed by simply summarizing the five items. Thus, a higher score stands for high desirability for LS. 2.3. Life Satisfaction The SWLS was manipulated by changing the temporal perspective in three ways: for the 1 week condition the items asked for judgements of LS in 1 week (e.g., ‘‘In one week I’ll be satisfied with my life’’; Cronbach’s a = .77; inter-item correlations .34–.57), for the 1 year condition items asked for LS in 1 year (e.g., ‘‘In one year I’ll be satisfied with my life’’; Cronbach’s a = .82; inter-item correlations .30–.59), and for the 10 years condition the items asked for LS in 10 years (e.g., ‘‘In ten years I’ll be satisfied with my life’’; Cronbach’s a = .80; inter-item correlations .33–.60). For each condition a LS score was computed by simply summarizing the five items. 3. Results
Undergraduate students at Linnaeus University, Sweden, participated in the study. Participants (65 men and 62 women, age mean 20.50 SD = 2.07) were randomly assigned to three different conditions: 1 week (n = 43), 1 year (n = 39), and 10 years (n = 45).
A temporal distance (1 week vs. 1 year vs. 10 years) gender between-subjects MANOVA was conducted in order to test differences in LS desirability and LS predictions. The main effect of gender was not significant (F(2,120) = 1.54, p = .22, Wilks’ Lambda = .98). There was a significant main effect of temporal distance (F(4,240) = 2.63, p < .05, Wilks’ Lambda = .92). The interaction of gender and temporal distance was not significant (F(4,240) = .29, p = .89, Wilks’ Lambda = .99), hence the effect of temporal distance was consistent across gender. The effect of temporal distance was significant for LS desirability (F(2,121) = 4.50, p < .01). A Bonferroni correction to the alpha level showed that LS was more desirable in 10 years (M = 23.07; SD = 5.35) than in one week (M = 20.14; SD = 5.45) and that in 1 year (M = 20.21; SD = 4.95). Thus indicating that LS is construe at a high level and should be influenced by temporal distance as predicted by CLT (see Fig. 1 for details). Nevertheless, the effect of temporal distance was non-significant for participants’ own judgments of LS (F(2,121) = 1.87, p = .16). In contrast to what CLT predicts, LS was judged equal in 1 week (M = 19.65; SD = 6.30), in 1 year (M = 18.18; SD = 5.92), and in 10 years (M = 20.78; SD = 5.85). See Fig. 2 for details.
2.1. Measures
4. Discussion
The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al., 1985) was presented in two different versions for each condition in order to measure both LS desirability and LS. The original SWLS consists of five statements (e.g., ‘‘I am satisfied with my life’’) and uses a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). Depending on the condition, participants were instructed to read the statements that had to do with their life in a week/1 year/ 10 years and to indicate grade of agreement using the 7-point scale.
An important contribution of the present study is that although LS is an abstract judgment and receives a higher value in the distant- than in the near-future, it seems not to be influenced by temporal distance as predicted by the CLT, perhaps, due to the close relationship between personality and LS. Nevertheless, temporal distance is suggested to affect the inferences we draw about ourselves (Trope & Liberman, 2003). Wakslak, Nussbaum, Liberman, and Trope (2008), for example, found that in the distant-future, compared with the near-future, individuals expect to exhibit their personality traits more consistently in different situations. Other explanations, than the strong influence of personality on LS, might therefore be valid. As proposed by the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis, memory of past events provides details for simulations of future
2. Method
2.2. Desirability for life satisfaction The SWLS was manipulated by changing the temporal perspective in three ways: for the 1 week condition the items asked for
1050
D. Garcia / Personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011) 1048–1051
Fig. 1. Mean desirability for Life Satisfaction Scores and 95% confidence intervals by 1 week, 1 year, and 10 years.
Fig. 2. Mean Life Satisfaction Scores and 95% confidence intervals by 1 week, 1 year, and 10 years Life Satisfaction (LS).
novel experiences (Addis & Schacter, 2008). Most CLT research, however, provides participants by hypothetical questions that may or may not involve episodic memory. For instance, judgments of moral transgression are often assessed by hypothetical moral dilemmas (e.g., Eyal et al., 2008). Trope and Lieberman (2003), suggest that temporal distance influences hypothetical and real events
differently. In contrast to hypothetical events, judgments of future LS are probably based on real episodic events from one’s own past. Nevertheless, while this finding is potentially interesting, there are always multiple explanations for null findings (i.e., low power for any of a number of reasons). In the present study the idea of mental time line and its role in representing past as well as future
D. Garcia / Personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011) 1048–1051
events was not considered. Arzy, Adi-Japha, and Blanke (2009) and Arzy, Collette, Ionta, Fornari, and Blanke (2009), for example, showed that that self-projection in time is a fundamental aspect of mental time. The idea of mental time line seems to guarantee the spatial nature of temporal representation with events placed near or distant according to the temporal position of an individual. Thus, in the present study this different self-projection on mental time line might have masked any proofs for CLT. Further studies should also take into account that, while LS is the cognitive part of SWB, positive and negative affect are the affective parts. According to affect-dependent time-discounting theories, it’s important to distinguish between cognition-based and affect-based value (Loewenstein, Weber, Hsee, & Welch, 2001). Thus, a remaining question is whether temporal distance influences the cognitive and affective parts of SWB differently. Additional studies should examine the influence of temporal distance in how feasible and probable individuals judge a happy life in the future. CLT suggests that individuals work harder for goals in the distant-future because feasibility receives less weight in distant-future goals. Thus, in contrast to what optimism would suggest, a positive outlook regarding future LS may reflect underweighting rather than overestimation of feasibility (Trope & Liberman, 2003). 5. Conclusions The findings presented here can actually be compared to those observations regarding distance- and size-perception made by the anthropologist Colin Turnbull among the BaMbuti Pygmies (Turnbull, 1961). In one of his trips in Congo on a high hill which had been cleared of trees, Turnbull and his companion Kenge a 22 year old Pygmy that never had been outside the middle of the Ituri Forest, looked over the plains and down to a herd of buffalo some miles away. Kenge asked what kind of insects they were. When Turnbull told him that they were buffalo, twice as big as the forest buffalo known to him, Kenge laughed and told Turnbull to not tell such stupid stories. As the two approached closer and Kenge watched the ‘‘insects’’ get larger and larger, he moved closer to Turnbull and muttered that it was witchcraft, and asked again what kind of insects they were. Turnbull suggested that the BaMbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Forest in the Congo were also psychologically conditioned by their environment. In a way, it seems that when it comes to happiness we are like Kenge (Gilbert, 2007). We base our representations or simulations of distant-future happiness on the forest of happiness
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or unhappiness we are accustomed to; time seems to be a friend or foe of ours.‘‘Time is on my side, yes it is’’ – The Rolling Stones Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg for supporting this research. I would also like to direct my gratitude to Erik Lindskär and Mitsuru Suzuki at Linnaeus University for their help collecting the data. References Addis, D. R., & Schacter, D. L. (2008). Effects of detail and temporal distance of past and future events on the engagement of a common neural network. Hippocampus, 18, 227–237. Arzy, S., Adi-Japha, E., & Blanke, O. (2009). The mental time line: An analogue of the mental number line in the mapping of life events. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, 781–785. Arzy, S., Collette, S., Ionta, S., Fornari, E., & Blanke, O. (2009). Subjective mental time line: The functional architecture of projecting the self to past and future. Cognitive Neuroscience, 30, 2009–2017. Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75. Eyal, T., Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2008). Judging near and distant virtue and vice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1204–1209. Eyal, T., Sagristano, M. D., Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Chaiken, S. (2009). When values matter: Expressing values in behavioral intentions for the near vs. distant future. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 35–43. Gilbert, D. (2007). Stumbling on happiness. London: Harpercollins Publishers. Kim-Prieto, C., Diener, E., Tamir, M., Scollon, C., & Diener, M. (2005). Integrating the diverse definitions of happiness: A time-sequential framework of subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 261–300. Loewenstein, G. F., Weber, E. U., Hsee, C. K., & Welch, N. (2001). Risk as feelings. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 267–286. Lucas, R. E., & Diener, E. (2008). Personality and Subjective Well-Being. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of Personality – Theory and Research (pp. 795–814). New York: The Guilford Press. Schacter, D. L., & Addis, D. R. (2007). The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory: Remembering the past and imagining the future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362, 773–786. Schacter, D. L., & Addis, D. R. (2007). The ghosts of past and future. Nature, 445, 27. Strack, F., Schwarz, N., & Gschneidinger, E. (1985). Happiness and reminiscing: The role of time perspective, affect, and mode of thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6, 1460–1469. Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2003). Temporal construal. Psychological Review, 3, 403–421. Turnbull, C. M. (1961). Some observations regarding the experiences and behavior of the BaMbuti Pygmies. American Journal of Psychology, 74, 304–308. Vallacher, R. R., & Wegner, D. M. (1987). What do people think they’re doing? Action identification and human behavior. Psychological Review, 94, 3–15. Wakslak, C. J., Nussbaum, S., Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2008). Representations of the self in the near and distant future. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 757–773.