Understanding tactical responses to social problems through the lens of regulatory scope

Brown, Craig · Nature Reviews Psychology · 2023 · social-psychology · 10.1038/s44159-023-00184-x · record Brown2023-understanding-tactical-responses-to-social-p
tag layer · index · concepts · authors · עברית
Where this record's text came from. faceted 2026-08 by reading the locally held text (pdftext); every evidence string verified as an exact substring of that text before merging. Claim type is 'prediction' rather than 'mechanism' on the paper's own framing: it presents an untested framework generating testable predictions, not a demonstrated causal account. Only one claim_relation could be recorded — this Perspective cites everything by superscript number, so nearly every relation to prior work is a bare citation; the exception is its explicit self-positioning on the two named theories it extends into the social-problem domain. Note the source is pdftext and several sentences are interrupted mid-quote by running headers (e.g. 'Nature Reviews Psychology | Volume 2 | July 2023 | 440–449 445 Perspective'), so candidate quotes spanning page breaks were avoided. 2026-08-14 and 2026-08-15 schema-0.3 passes: every quote verified as an exact substring of the staged text and anchored at merge time; concept terms verified present; every edge endpoint an existing node.
This record’s own method is review, and the tags below follow from that. A review’s findings, quantities and statistics are things stated IN this paper, and some of them report results obtained elsewhere. No tag on this page names a different author. Measured across every review in this corpus, 81% of a review’s tags carry no citation at all — most of them are the review speaking. The corpus does not adjudicate the rest: read an unmarked tag as a claim this paper makes, not necessarily one it made first.
How to read this page. The article itself is not reproduced here — this paper is not cleared for redistribution, so what follows is the tag layer alone. The evidence sentences are withheld with the article. The table at the foot lists every tag the record carries; each row names the facet it belongs to, and the whose words column says whether the tag records the paper's own wording or the tagger's sentence about the paper. Every tag links to each other paper in the corpus carrying it. The machine-readable edition of the same thing is the TEI file beside this one, where the tags live in standOff, and the article is at its publisher via the link below. When we have changed our mind. Some entries in the table begin with a word in capitals and the reason for it. EVIDENCE CORRECTED — the finding still stands, but we had quoted the wrong sentence from the paper, and the quotation has been replaced with the right one. RETRACTED — the entry itself was wrong; it stays on the page, marked, with the reason, rather than being deleted. WITHDRAWN AND REPLACED — the entry was wrong, and a corrected version of it appears in the entries below. Each mark carries its own reason, in brackets, because the reasons differ from one entry to the next. An entry we have WITHDRAWN is removed from this page and kept in the record, with its reason. A line reading Audit and a date is a later re-reading of the entry against its whole sentence: DOUBTFUL means it was kept, and the reason says what is loose about it. Quotation marks inside the tagger's sentence. Where a tag is the tagger's own sentence, a phrase in quotation marks inside it is borrowed from the paper — the tagger's wording around it is not. The paper's own sentence is the evidence quote for that row; on this page it is withheld with the article, and the article is at its publisher. Nothing inside quotation marks anywhere on this page is ours: if it is quoted, it is the paper's. Whose words a concept carries. A concept entry records a term the paper itself uses, so the term, the sense given for it, and its evidence are the paper's own words, quoted where the paper fixes them. This is the opposite of a sense entry in the tag table, which is the tagger's sentence about how the paper uses a term. Where a concept entry could not be grounded in the paper's words, the entry says so on its own row.
Other fields define these differently the same word, defined another way in another discipline
collective action 3 fields · hope 2 fields

Tags on this paper

Every tag the record carries, each linking to every other paper in the corpus that carries it. A tag appears here whether or not its words occur in the article — the spans below are only the ones a sentence in this paper licenses. Of the 5 concept tags on this paper, all 5 are grounded in a quoted sentence.
regulatory scope construal level psychological distance social action scope Features of a social problem contract or expand regulatory scope, and the width of scope then determines whether the solution pursued targets consequences or causes Where an emotion is aimed (at affected individuals versus at the system) narrows or widens scope, which in turn channels action towards relief or towards structural change social problem collective action level of construal regulatory scope theory feasibility and desirability group efficacy hope Affirmation actions informed actions benevolence actions activism actions consequence-focused solutions cause-focused solutions review

Legend

relation to other workclaim_relationshow this paper stands to another: agrees, contradicts, extends, qualifies
claim typeclaim_typethe shape of the claim: existence, mechanism, method, critique, prediction, null
concept edgeconcept_edgesan asserted relation between two concepts, with the sentence asserting it
conceptconceptsan idea the paper works with, quoted where the paper uses it
content tagcontent_tagsa finding, definition, quantity, statistic or variable named in the paper
limitationlimitationswhat the paper says its evidence cannot support
mechanismmechanismshow the reported effect is said to come about
methodmethodhow the paper produced its evidence
phenomenonphenomenonthe effect or regularity under study
sensesensesa distinct use of a term, quoted where the paper fixes it

The paper

The full text is not reproduced here. This article is not cleared for redistribution, so the page carries the tag layer only. Its evidence sentences are withheld; the grounding status remains with each tag, and the article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00184-x. The reading view exists for the papers whose licence permits it.

Every tag on this page

claim_relations 1 · claim_type 1 · concept_edges 2 · concepts 5 · content_tags 21 · limitations 8 · mechanisms 2 · method 1 · phenomenon 1 · senses 3

Relations on this page carry a quotation for the claim. Where a relation was separately evidenced — and so tested against the vocabulary for its type — the row says so; none of 2 relations here carry that mark. The rest are the tagger’s reading of the sentence quoted beside them.

This record holds no controls. A layer is empty when the tagger recorded nothing in it — which is not the same as the paper having nothing to record.

facettagfieldconf.whose words
claim_typeprediction
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claim_typethe paper's words
phenomenonchoice between cause-focused and consequence-focused responses to social problems
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phenomenonthe paper's words
methodreview
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also in: review
methodthe paper's words
mechanismsmechanisms
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status: the paper's own words: We propose that
mechanisms[0]the tagger's words
mechanismsmechanisms
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mechanisms[1]the tagger's words
limitationsThe proposed model as a whole has not been empirically tested; only some of its paths have prior support.
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limitations[0]the tagger's words
limitationsThe intergroup studies cited as support did not actually measure expanded scope as the mediating mechanism.
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limitations[1]the tagger's words
limitationsRegulatory scope is only one of several possible mechanisms driving social action.
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limitations[2]the tagger's words
limitationsThe five features analysed are illustrative rather than an exhaustive set of scope-modulating features.
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limitations[3]the tagger's words
limitationsThe feasibility-versus-desirability prediction is offered as plausible reasoning that still requires empirical test.
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limitations[4]the tagger's words
limitationsThe framework sorts the same actions by a different principle from the frameworks it replaces.
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what this limits: any comparison between this framework's categories and earlier ones: existing frameworks categorise the actions themselves while this one categorises by the aims of the action, so the two sort the same behaviour differently
limitations[5]1.0the tagger's words
limitationsTwo adjacent constructs are distinguished in one sentence, and the theory depends on keeping them apart.
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what this limits: any claim here about scope: the authors distinguish it from psychological distance, which is the distance between a person and a mental object, whereas scope is the span and breadth of possibilities considered
limitations[6]1.0the tagger's words
limitationsThe paper is a Perspective that draws two existing theories together rather than reporting a study.
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what this limits: the status of the account given here: it is a Perspective drawing on regulatory scope theory and construal level theory
limitations[7]1.0the tagger's words
conceptsregulatory scope
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concepts[0]the paper's words
conceptsconstrual level
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concepts[1]the paper's words
conceptspsychological distance
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concepts[2]the paper's words
conceptssocial action
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also in: social action
concepts[3]the paper's words
conceptsscope
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also in: scope
concepts[4]the paper's words
sensesscope versus psychological distance - TWO CONSTRUCTS ROUTINELY CONFLATED, SEPARATED HERE IN ONE SENTENCE: distance is how far a mental object is from the person, scope is how wide a range of possibilities they are considering, and the theory's predictions turn on the second not the first
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senses[0]1.0the tagger's words
sensesthe framework - CARVED BY AIMS RATHER THAN BY ACTIONS: prior schemes classify what people do, this one classifies what they are trying to achieve, so a given act of protest or donation can land in different categories under the two schemes
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
senses[1]1.0the tagger's words
sensesconstrual level - AS THE INSTRUMENT FOR MOVING SCOPE: described as the most studied tool for modulating scope, with the abstract expanding it and the concrete contracting it, so a study that manipulates construal is manipulating scope only through that link
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senses[2]1.0the tagger's words
claim_relationsbuilds-on → construal level theory and regulatory scope theory
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claim_relations[0]the tagger's words
concept_edgespsychological distance —distinct-from→ scope
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differs in: THE AXIS IS WHAT EACH CONSTRUCT IS A DISTANCE OR SPAN OF, AND BOTH DEFINITIONS ARE GIVEN. 'whereas psychological distance refers to the distance between a person and a mental object, Quotation withheld.' A paper distinguishing two of its own constructs by defining each - the cleanest form this field takes, and rare. · strength of the relation: 1
concept_edges[0]the tagger's words
concept_edgesconstrual level —part-of→ regulatory scope
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strength of the relation: 1 Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but regulatory scope theory EXPANDS ON construal level theory; part-of is loose.
concept_edges[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsThe paper's central proposal is that a proximal or lower-level focus pushes people towards solutions that relieve suffering, while a distal or higher-level focus pushes them towards solutions that attack the problem's causes.
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content_tags.findings[0]the tagger's words
content_tagsThe framework names five specific features of a social problem that are proposed to expand or contract scope and thereby steer which kind of solution is chosen.
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content_tags.findings[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsThe relation between construal features and chosen solutions is claimed to run in both directions: acting on consequences itself pulls attention to the present, while acting on causes pulls attention to the future.
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content_tags.findings[2]the tagger's words
content_tagsThe authors flag the emotion-target pathway as an untested, novel prediction generated by their framework rather than an established result.
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content_tags.findings[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsThe authors suggest that if people mostly pursue consequence-focused actions, for feasibility or short-term reward, the root cause remains and the problem may persist.
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content_tags.findings[4]the tagger's words
content_tagssocial problem
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content_tags.definitions[0]the tagger's words
content_tagssocial action
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also in: social action
content_tags.definitions[1]the tagger's words
content_tagscollective action
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content_tags.definitions[2]the tagger's words
content_tagspsychological distance
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content_tags.definitions[3]the tagger's words
content_tagslevel of construal
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content_tags.definitions[4]the tagger's words
content_tagsregulatory scope theory
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content_tags.definitions[5]the tagger's words
content_tagsfeasibility and desirability
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content_tags.definitions[9]the tagger's words
content_tagsgroup efficacy
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content_tags.definitions[10]the tagger's words
content_tagshope
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also in: hope
content_tags.definitions[11]the tagger's words
content_tagsAffirmation actions
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content_tags.definitions[12]the tagger's words
content_tagsinformed actions
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content_tags.definitions[13]the tagger's words
content_tagsbenevolence actions
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content_tags.definitions[14]the tagger's words
content_tagsactivism actions
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content_tags.definitions[15]the tagger's words
content_tagsconsequence-focused solutions
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content_tags.definitions[16]the tagger's words
content_tagscause-focused solutions
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content_tags.definitions[17]the tagger's words
content_tags90 per cent / 10 per cent — Share of surveyed anti-poverty NGO supporters reporting consequence-focused actions (donating, fair-trade purchases) versus cause-focused actions (signing petitions), cited in support of the framework
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content_tags.quantities[0]the tagger's words

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