The Processing Mechanism Of Resulatory Fit:the Moderated Role Of Construal Level

People experience regulatory fit when the manner of their engagement in an activity sustains (rather than disrupts) their current motivational orientation or interests. Fit makes people engage more strongly in what they are doing and feel right about it. The present study examined the moderated role of construal level and the mediated roles of feeling right, engagement and processing fluency in the regulatory fit effect by combining with the construal level theory and the regulatory fit theory. This study constituted of two parts. Study1examined the moderated role of construal level in the effect of regulatory fit on intention (experiment1) and attitude (experiment2). Study2examined the mediated roles of feeling right, engagement and processing fluency in the effect of regulatory fit. The results were as following:1. There were different effects of regulatory fit on intention in the high vs. low construal level:regulatory fit increased the intention to pay in credit card in the low construal level condition, while it decreased the intention to pay in credit card in the high construal level condition.2. There were different effects of regulatory fit on attitude in the high vs. low construal level:regulatory fit decreased the positive attitude to waste sorting in the low construal level condition, while regulatory fit increased the positive attitude to waste sorting in the high construal level condition by drawing the subjects'attention to the message when the message arguments were weak.3. There were different effects of regulatory fit on intention in the high vs. low construal level:regulatory fit increased the intention to attend volunteer service of waste sorting in the low construal level condition, while regulatory fit decreased the intention to attend volunteer service of waste sorting in the high construal level condition by drawing the subjects'attention to the message proposal.4. The effect of interaction between regulatory fit and construal level on intention was mediated by engagement. When all engagement, feeling right and processing fluency were included in the model as predictors of intention, only the effect of engagement was significant; neither the effect of feeling right nor the effect of processing fluency was significant.5. The effect of interaction between regulatory fit and construal level on feeling right was mediated by engagement. When engagement was not included in the model as predictor of intention, the effect of interaction between regulatory fit and construal level on intention was partially mediated by feeling right.6. The effect of interaction between regulatory fit and construal level on processing fluency was mediated by engagement. When engagement was not included in the model as predictor of intention, the effect of interaction between regulatory fit and construal level on intention was partially mediated by processing fluency.7. The strengthened engagement came from implicit feeling right. The subjects' engagement strength was not significantly different by telling the right source of feeling right, which suggested that subjects engaged cognitive resource in reading the message in terms of implicit feeling right.8. The strengthened engagement increased explicit feeling right. Before the subjects experienced regulatory fit, they were depleted by cognitive task which led them to be lack of cognitive resource for engaging in the message, so that they did not experience explicit feeling right differently.