Individual Differences in Risk-Taking Tendency and Framing Effect

Abstract

I investigated the relationship between framing effect and individuals' level of tendency to take risks. The results showed that the strength of the tendency of individuals to take risks influences the occurrence of framing effect. Frame had relatively less impact on those participants whose tendency to take risks was stronger than that of other people and people in this group tended to pursue risks in both positive and negative frame conditions. Frame had a stronger impact on those participants with a weaker risk-taking tendency, and they tended to avoid risks under positive framing conditions but pursued risks under negative framing. These results explain the preference shift phenomenon, whereby a tendency to take risks under a positive framing condition becomes stronger under a negative framing condition (unidirectional framing effect), that has been found in previous studies. The results also confirmed that framing influenced participants' reaction time, which was shorter in the positive frame condition than in the negative frame condition.