Organizing Attention in Simple Choice Behavior

We propose that by inducing high level construal in those with a goal to diet, attention will shift toward goal congruent processing of visual stimuli. Conversely, by inducing low level construals in those with a diet goal, attention will shift toward processing salient cues in the immediate context (e.g. bright flashy packaging and/or taste). To test these hypotheses, participants completed a construal level mindset manipulation followed by a choice task that biased attention in favor of goal-relevant vs. goal-irrelevant stimuli. Results unfortunately were not consistent with hypotheses and failed to replicate past research that indicated the attention task we used influences choice behavior (Armel, Beaumel, & Rangel, 2008). We discuss reasons for this failure to replicate and make recommendations for future research