Quantitative Measurements of the Effect of Framing and Social Closeness on Decision Making

Abstract

According to prospect theory of framing, people's decisions are influenced by the potential outcomes themselves and how those outcomes are framed. In our study we investigated if social closeness would influence people in the same way and if it has an increased impact when used in combination with framing. We hypothesized that if the message is in gain-frame, then the potential donors, participants, will be more willing to donate, and if the potential donor and the recipient have a close relationship, then the donor will show higher willingness to donate. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that there will be an interaction effect between message framing and social closeness on willingness to donate. Participants (N = 1539) were randomly assigned to two different types of survey, one in a gain frame and other one in a loss frame. Social closeness was manipulated into two levels, close family member and close friend, and participants were again randomly assigned to two different types, with one asking to give the name of their close friend, and the other one asking to give the name of their close family member. Framing and social closeness both had effects on participants' decision making, however, unlike our hypothesis, did not have a combined effect. Our results imply that individuals may process information about framing and their social relations separately when deciding on donating. The cognitive process involved in this kind of decision making may require two separate processes for evaluating framing and social closeness, respectively.