Desires matter! Desired attitudes predict behavioural intentions in people who think abstractly: the case of eating products without added salt / ¡Los deseos importan! Las actitudes deseadas predicen las intenciones de comportamiento en las personas que piensan de modo abstracto: El caso del consumo de alimentos sin sal añadida

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Introduction. Previous research supports that congruence in the construal level between a person’s mindset and predictors enhanced the strength of predictions. Because desired attitudes are more abstract than actual attitudes, we expected that desired attitudes would better predict behavioural intentions in people who present an abstract style of thinking. Objective. We tested this matching effect between desired attitudes and abstractness by measuring the construal level as a person’s base-rate tendency. Method. Participants (N = 105) reported their past experience and actual and desired attitudes towards eating products without added salt and their behavioural intentions. To classify participants according to an abstract or a concrete way of thinking, their first thought was coded using the linguistic category model (LCM). Results. The simple slopes analysis showed that desired attitudes significantly influenced behavioural intentions for participants with an abstract way of thinking. Conclusion. Our results support the relevance of desired attitudes in terms of behavioural predictions and extend the role of the construal level in the prediction and promotion of desirable but demanding behaviour in the framework of individual differences.