The Effects of Construal Level on Heuristic Reasoning: The Case of Representativeness and Availability João N. Braga University of Lisbon and Indiana University, Bloomington Mário B. Ferreira University of Lisbon Steven J. Sherman Indiana University, Bloomington Reasoning heuristics underlie many judgments (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). However, the distinction among these heuristics has never been clear. Availability (the ease with which specific instances come to mind) and representativeness (judgments based on the similarity between a target and an abstract representation) have been used to account for the same phenomena, and the processes underlying each heuristic have not been definitively identified. Construal level theory suggests that events can be represented at either a higher, more abstract level, or a lower, more concrete level, although the effect of construal level on heuristic reasoning has not been fully explored. We propose that high levels of construal increase reliance on the representativeness heuristic, whereas low levels of construal favor the use of availability. In three studies, we test whether the effect of construal level on heuristic reasoning depends on the process proposed to underlie each heuristic. Low levels of construal increase the salience of and concreteness of features and thus increase decisions relying on the availability heuristic (Study 3). On the other hand, because an abstract construal level increases the focus on similarity and abstract representations, high levels of construal increase reliance on the represen- tativeness heuristic (Studies 1, 2, and 3). Keywords: construal level theory, reasoning heuristics, availability, representativeness Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dec0000021.supp Research on Construal Level Theory (CLT) has shown that psychological distance affects the extent to which people think about an event, person, or idea in more concrete or abstract terms (e.g., Trope & Liberman, 2010). These changes in the level of construal have been shown to affect judgments and decisions in sev- eral domains, although its effect on the use of classical judgment heuristics such as represen- tativeness (judgments based on the similarity between a target and its abstract representation) and availability (judgments based on the acces- sibility of specific instances; Tversky & Kahne- man, 1974) remains unclear (Trope & Liber- man, 2010). In the present article, we propose that high levels of construal may facilitate the use of representativeness whereas low construal levels should favor the use of the availability heuristic. Such findings would contribute to a better understanding of the cognitive processes underlying these heuristics and would help de- fine the conditions under which these heuristics are more likely to be used. This article was published Online First December 22, 2014. João N. Braga, Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, and Department of Psychological and Brain Sci- ences, Indiana University, Bloomington; Mário B. Ferreira, Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon; Steven J. Sherman, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington. This research was supported by a grant from the Portu- guese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT: SFRH/ BD/ 73378/ 2010) to the first author. We thank Leonel Garcia-Marques for his helpful suggestions. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to João N. Braga, Alameda da Universidade, Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Sala A321. 1649-013 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: jpbraga@fp.ul.pt This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Decision © 2014 American Psychological Association 2015, Vol. 2, No. 3, 216 –227 2325-9965/15/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dec0000021 216