I propose a flexible threshold theory of change perception in self and social judgment. Traditionally, change perception is viewed as a basic cognitive process entailing the act of discriminating informational differences. This article takes a more dynamic view of change perception, highlighting people's motivations in interpreting those differences. Specifically, I propose people's change perceptions depend not only on the salience and quality of the evidence for change but they also depend on the adaptation implications of the change, as people are sensitive to whether their prompted response would be worth it. Variables that exacerbate perceived adaptation implications should thus lead people to contract their change perception thresholds (people should become less open to concluding things have changed and so less likely to act), while variables that alleviate perceived adaptation implications should thus lead people to expand their change perception thresholds (people should become more open to concluding things have changed and so more likely to act), all else equal in the evidence. Moreover, these effects should emerge for perceiving declines and improvements alike so long as change bears on adaptation implications. I review support for these proposals and use the theory to generate novel predictions, contributions, and applications. The theory can explain anew why people respond (or fail to respond) to changing climates and economies, worsening personal health, growing social progress, and many other self and social phenomena. Change perception is more than an act of discriminating differences-it also entails people's threshold judgments of whether and how these differences matter. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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自我、他人和世界变化感知的灵活阈值理论。


我提出了一种关于自我和社会判断的变化感知的灵活阈值理论。传统上，变化感知被视为一种基本的认知过程，需要区分信息差异的行为。本文对变化感知采取了更动态的观点，强调了人们解释这些差异的动机。具体来说，我建议人们的变革感知不仅取决于变革证据的显着性和质量，还取决于变革的适应影响，因为人们对他们的提示反应是否值得很敏感。因此，加剧感知适应影响的变量应该导致人们收缩他们的变化感知阈值（人们应该不太愿意得出事情已经发生变化的结论，因此不太可能采取行动），而减轻感知适应影响的变量应该导致人们扩大他们的变化感知阈值（人们应该更加开放地得出事情已经发生变化的结论，因此更有可能采取行动），证据中的其他条件都相同。此外，只要变化对适应产生影响，这些影响就应该出现在感知衰退和改善方面。我审查对这些提案的支持，并利用该理论产生新颖的预测、贡献和应用。该理论可以重新解释为什么人们对气候和经济变化、个人健康恶化、社会进步以及许多其他自我和社会现象做出反应（或没有反应）。改变认知不仅仅是一种区分差异的行为，它还涉及人们对这些差异是否重要以及如何重要的阈值判断。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。