Abstractness and desirableness in the human values system: Self-transcendence values are construed more abstractly, but felt more closely than are self-enhancement values

Human values are universally accepted as abstract and desirable goals, but the relationship between the relative abstractness (construal level) and desirableness (psychological distance) is not clear within the values system. Based on Schwartz's (1992) theory of human values and Trope and Liberman's (2010) construal level theory, we examined the construal level and psychological distance of two higher order values, self-transcendence and self-enhancement, which inherently conflict with each other in motivational goals, in three studies. We found that participants construed self-transcendence values at a higher, more abstract level than they did self-enhancement values (Studies 1 and 2), but they evaluated a person who cherished self-transcendence values to be psychologically closer than a person who cherished self-enhancement values (Study 3). Thus, self-transcendence and self-enhancement values differ in the relative magnitude of abstractness and desirableness. Contrary to the construal level theory, high (vs. low) abstraction level is not necessarily associated with far (vs. near) psychological distance in the human values system. Implications of the current findings are discussed.