The Effect of Self-Construal on Spatial Judgments

Much prior literature has focused on the effect of self-construal on social judgment. We highlight the role of self-construal in spatial judgments. We show that individuals with independent (vs. interdependent) self-construals are more prone to spatial judgment biases in tasks in which the context needs to be included in processing; they are less prone to spatial judgment biases in tasks in which the context needs to be excluded in processing. We show such spatial judgment effects when selfconstrual is operationalized by different cultures (study 1) and as a construct that shifts with situational primes (studies 2 and 3).