Many people live with restrictions in their daily lives. Overlooked in past research is how individuals who experience restrictions construe information. We propose that individuals with temporary (permanent) restrictions adopt a more concrete (abstract) level of construal. Theoretically, perceptions of loss of control explain the construal level of consumers with temporary (vs. permanent) restrictions. We tested our hypotheses in a series of four quasi-experiment studies both in the field and online, including samples of individuals with diabetes and celiac disease. The results show that individuals who experience temporary (permanent) restrictions adopt more concrete (abstract) levels of construal, which results in their preference for products that communicate brand (category) attributes and shelves that contain only restriction-related (mixture of restriction- and no restriction-related) products. These findings extend developments in the literature on restrictions and construal level theory by showing the effects of duration of restrictions on individuals’ mindset and generate actionable implications for marketers and policymakers.

中文翻译：

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生活在限制中：限制的持续时间影响解释水平

许多人在日常生活中受到限制。在过去的研究中被忽视的是经历限制的个人如何解释信息。我们建议具有临时（永久）限制的个人采用更具体（抽象）的解释水平。从理论上讲，对失去控制的看法解释了具有临时（与永久）限制的消费者的解释水平。我们在现场和在线的一系列四项准实验研究中测试了我们的假设，包括糖尿病和乳糜泻患者的样本。结果表明，经历临时（永久）限制的个人采用更具体（抽象）的解释水平，这导致他们偏爱传达品牌（类别）属性的产品和仅包含限制相关（限制和无限制相关的混合）产品的货架。这些发现通过显示限制持续时间对个人心态的影响，并为营销人员和政策制定者产生可操作的影响，扩展了限制和解释水平理论文献的发展。