A Conjoint Analysis of Silver Town Selection Attributes: The Roles of Temporal Distance and Construal Level

This study investigates how temporal distance to occupancy influences consumers’ cognitive framing and attribute trade-offs when selecting a silver town. Building on Construal Level Theory (CLT), a scenario-based conjoint survey was conducted with 304 prospective consumers and family members. Respondents evaluated 16 hypothetical silver town profiles under either a near-future or a distant-future move-in scenario. The results reveal that temporal distance fundamentally reorganizes the hierarchy of valued attributes. Consistent with CLT predictions, service offerings carried the greatest relative weight in the distant-future scenario. Conversely, respondents prioritized concrete, feasibility-driven factors like location and infrastructure in the near-future scenario. Statistical testing confirmed these significant shifts in preference structures (p<.05), even after controlling for biological age. These findings offer a CLT-consistent interpretation of how prospective consumers cognitively frame silver town selection across different temporal horizons.