It's not what you say but when you say it: impression management and temporal construal

It's not what you say but when you say it: impression management and temporal construal Public Deposited

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Creator

Carter, Seth E.
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

Abstract

Temporal processes affect a number of interpersonal phenomena. Four studies examine the role of time in impression management. Specifically, it is predicted that people use indirect self-presentation more and rate it as more effective in the distant future versus near future. The opposite pattern is predicted for direct self-presentation. Study 1 demonstrates this effect using scenario methodology. Study 2 conceptually "reverses" the effect by manipulating impression management and measuring subjective temporal appraisal. Study 3 shows that minimal connections (in this case a shared birthday) are used more in the distant versus near future. Study 4 shows the predicted effect using a real time manipulation. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that time affects both the use and perceived effectiveness of impression management. Future research possibilities are discussed.

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