Framing Effects Research Articles

Scientific Advice and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Revisiting the Asian Disease Problem

Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has underscored the importance of scientific knowledge and highlighted the challenge for politicians: They had to rely on expert advice and still had to make decisions under uncertainty due to the lack of long-term health data. This article investigates how expert judgments and expert advice affect the choices between programs that are proposed to combat the outbreak of a viral disease by means of a between-subjects design embedded in a survey. We use the classic Asian disease experiment and extend earlier applications by varying the professional background of the experts (virologists vs. social scientists) within the experimental set-up. We use data from a university wide web-survey to show the persistence of framing effects and that the disciplinary background of the expert is not related to individual decision-making under risk.

Behavioral Finance: The Impact of Investor Expectation on Financial Decision-Making

Behavioral finance challenges traditional financial theories by questioning the assumption of investor rationality, highlighting the influence of cognitive biases, emotions, and psychological factors on decision-making. This deviation from conventional models like the Efficient Market Hypothesis recognizes the complexity of human decision-making in financial contexts. The field focuses on key phenomena: loss aversion, market anomalies, the framing effect, and the endowment effect. Loss aversion reveals a stronger reaction to losses than equivalent gains, influencing overly cautious decisions. Market anomalies, such as momentum and trend reversals, challenge efficient market expectations. The framing effect shows how decision-making is swayed by information presentation. The endowment effect impacts perceived asset value, affecting financial decisions. These biases significantly impact investor behavior, potentially leading to suboptimal portfolio choices. Recognizing these biases is crucial for making informed financial decisions. Behavioral finance research has profound implications, emphasizing the integration of behavioral insights with traditional models. Future studies should explore cumulative behavioral effects, conduct cross-cultural analyses, and investigate diverse market conditions for more effective investment strategies and regulations. Understanding global financial behavior through behavioral finance is essential for comprehensive insights into market dynamics and decision-making processes.

Preventing bypass on sharing economy platforms: The impact of message framing on users’ bypass intention

Bypass happens when sharing economy users intentionally circumvent platforms’ payment process to transact directly with each other. For sharing platforms, it is a form of dark behavior that could represent a threat. This study focuses on the mitigation of bypass and whether message framing can reduce bypass, examining the impact of a negatively-framed message (highlighting risks and disadvantages associated with bypass) and a positively-framed message (highlighting benefits associated with finalizing the payment on the platform). Based on an experiment (N = 600), results show that both messages impact bypass intention significantly, especially the negatively-framed message. Moreover, our model unravels insights into some of the mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of different message frames: both messages impact directly bypass intention, however, while the negative message reduces bypass indirectly via reduced perceived economic benefit and increased perceived risk, the corresponding indirect effects of the positive message are non significant.

Persepsi Wajib Pajak pada Pembingkaian Pemberitaan Kasus Penghindaran Pajak dalam Keputusan Kepatuhan Pajak

Framing causes individuals to have different behavior in making various decisions. In this research, the framing of tax avoidance news is one of the factors in taxpayers' perceptions of whether or not they will remain compliant with taxes after reading tax avoidance news. This research aims to find out how taxpayers perceive the framing of tax avoidance news in tax compliance decisions using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) which are used as a basis for explaining changes in individual behavior when receiving the framing effect. This descriptive research was carried out by collecting primary data on the population, namely taxpayers in Pontianak City, West Kalimantan. This research data was collected from May to June 2023. Data was collected using interview techniques. Respondents in this study were selected using a purposive sampling technique. The findings in this research are the perception that taxpayers still choose to comply with taxes after hearing news about tax avoidance, which means that taxpayers think that news about tax avoidance is framed positively.

Problems of the US Recycling Programs: What Experienced Recycling Program Managers Tell

Recycling is a cornerstone of waste management. Despite its significance and growing interest, the US recycling rate has stagnated at around 35% for more than the past decade. In this study, we investigate an effective waste collection method as well as factors that may negatively affect recycling program management as a proxy measure of the recycling rate. To this end, recycling program managers and coordinators were surveyed since they play a pivotal role in the flow of recyclable materials. We found a combination of curbside and drop-off recycling to be the most cost-effective, but when managers’ experience level is factored in, the perceived significance of the combination approach decreases. Concerning barriers to recycling, we found that market variability for recycled materials, insufficient public participation in waste collection, and knowledge of best practices are critical inhibiting factors. In addition, China’s complete ban on waste import by 2030, an organizational framing effect of recycling, and a strong need for public education and outreach activities about recycling have emerged as new problems for recycling. Our findings point out recycling systems that reduce those setbacks to improve recycling performance and increase the recycling rate.

Insulation performance evaluation of stone-finished exterior insulation systems with insulation frames for green remodeling of concrete exterior walls

This study aimed to evaluate the thermal bridge reduction effect of insulation frames applied to a stone-finished exterior insulation system, which is commonly used in green remodeling projects. The insulation performance of the exterior walls and the energy performance of the building in a baseline case in which an existing steel pipe frame was applied were compared with those in cases alt 1 and alt 2, which included application of double- and single-wired truss-shaped insulation frames, respectively. First, a three-dimensional steady-state heat transfer simulation was conducted for the exterior wall-floor joint of the model building, and the effective U-factor was obtained. Next, mock-ups were constructed and the U-factor was tested to verify the insulation performance of cases alt 1 and alt 2. The heat loss decreased as the effective U-factors of alt 1 and alt 2 decreased by 19.0 % and 19.7 %, respectively, compared to the baseline case, according to the heat transfer simulations. In the mock-up test, the U-factors of alt 1 and alt 2 were similar to design U-factor, indicating almost no heat loss caused by the thermal bridges. Notably, the U-factor of alt 2 was 2.4 % lower than that of alt 1. Finally the energy performance of the entire building was compared through dynamic building energy simulations by reflecting the thermal bridging effect. The annual heating and cooling energy use of alt 1 and alt 2 were 2.5 % and 2.6 % lower than those of the baseline case, respectively, confirming the energy-saving effect of reducing thermal bridges.

Effects of COVID-19 vaccine safety framing on parental reactions.

As a major concern shared by parents globally, COVID-19 vaccine safety is typically being messaged to the public in a negative frame in many countries. However, whether the COVID-19 vaccine safety framing have an effect on parents when vaccinating their children is unclear. Here we implement an online survey with a convenience sample of 3,861 parents living in mainland China, all over 18 years old and with at least one child under 18. The parents were randomly assigned to receive information about COVID-19 vaccine safety in either a negative frame (incidence of side effects) or a positive frame (the inverse incidence of side effects), to compare parental reactions to a range of questions about communication, risk perception, trust, involvement and behavioral intention. We found that parents were more likely to regard vaccine safety as relevant to policy support and as a higher priority for government when receiving positively framed information (p = 0.002). For some specific subgroups, parents in positive framing group showed lower risk perception and higher trust (p<0.05). This suggests that positive framing of COVID-19 vaccine safety messages show more effective performance than negative framing in terms of involvement, as well as trust and risk perception in specific subgroups, which may lead to a reflection on whether to adjust the current widespread use of negative framing. Our findings inform how governments and health care workers strategically choose the framing design of COVID-19 vaccine safety information, and have important implications for promoting COVID-19 vaccination in children in the future.

Association of temporal discounting with transdiagnostic symptom dimensions.

Temporal discounting (TD), the tendency to devalue future rewards as a function of delay until receipt, is aberrant in many mental disorders. Identifying symptom patterns and transdiagnostic dimensions associated with TD could elucidate mechanisms responsible for clinically impaired decision-making and facilitate identifying intervention targets. Here, we tested in a general population sample (N = 731) the extent to which TD was related to different symptom patterns and whether effects of time framing (dates/delay units) and monetary magnitude (large/small) had particularly strong effects in people scoring higher on specific symptom patterns. Analyses revealed that TD was related to symptom patterns loading on anxious-depression and inattention-impulsivity-overactivity dimensions. Moreover, TD was lower in the date than the delay version and with higher magnitudes, especially in people scoring higher on the inattention-impulsivity-overactivity dimension. Overall, this study provides evidence for TD as a transdiagnostic process across affective and impulsivity-related dimensions. Future studies should test framing interventions in clinical populations characterized by impulsivity.Preregistration: This research was preregistered at https://osf.io/fg9sc .

Framing brand concept of vertical line extensions: The moderating role of believability

AbstractThis article examines the influence of framing a brand's concept as functional versus symbolic in the advertising of a new vertical line extension. In this research, we carried out two online experiments and collected data from 415 participants recruited from MTurk to investigate the moderating role of believability on the effect of brand concept framing on consumers' purchase intentions of vertical line extensions. The results indicate that (i) consumers evaluate a vertical extension advertising message more positively when it is framed in a consistent manner with the targeted price/quality segment and not with its parent brand or existing product line and that (ii) this effect is moderated by consumer believability such that an advertising framing effect is found for high, but not low, in believability. Perceptions of category fit mediate the relationship between framing brand concept and the evaluation of the extension. This study contributes to the advertising and marketing literature by exploring how consumers can interpret brand concept framing in advertising messages of vertical line extensions differently depending on their level of believability and, in turn, influence their purchase intentions.

Effects of Feedback about Overhead Spending from Charitable Organizations on Overhead Aversion

ABSTRACT Charitable organizations spend donated funds for programs and overhead. Donors expect their donated money to be used to help the cause rather than the overhead (i.e. overhead aversion). Donors expect feedback on the use of their donated money for helping the cause and for overhead. However, donors seldom receive proper feedback from charities, which is one of the reasons for not continuing donation. This paper highlights the importance of transparent feedback that presents information on the use of donated funds to help the cause and for overhead. Study 1 shows that attitude toward the charity is more favorable when the feedback is transparent than opaque. Study 2 shows that the transparent (vs. opaque) feedback sequentially affects perceived donation impact, charity attitude, and donation intention. Study 3 tests the framing effect of the feedback message. Donors perceive the impact of donation to be greater when the feedback on overhead presents the amount spent in terms of helping the cause than the amount spent on overhead.

Effects of message frames and visual cues on cell-cultured meat communication: sensation seeking as a moderator

Cell-cultured meat presents environmental and ethical advantages; however, negative public acceptance remains a significant hurdle. To generate more effective public engagement on this topic, we conducted two online experiments exploring the impact of message framing and food cues (Experiment 1) and the moderating role of an individual's personality trait, sensation seeking, (Experiment 2) on the perception of cultured meat news shared via social media. Our findings revealed that messages employing individual benefit-framing, as opposed to societal benefit-framing, resulted in more positive perceptions of cultured meat. Incorporating direct food cues in the communication led to reduced risk perception, a more favorable attitude, and increased intention to purchase cultured meat. Furthermore, sensation seeking was shown to be a significant moderator for the effects of the message features. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.

Framing effects on sustainable behavior

AbstractThe impacts of climate change are profound and widespread. Investigating the impact of strategic climate change communication is crucial for informing effective communication strategies and ultimately driving meaningful action toward addressing climate change. This research aims to develop effective climate change communication on Facebook with the objective of fostering sustainable behavior. It seeks to accomplish this by evaluating the influence of strategic climate change frames on sustainable behavior intentions and examining the moderating effect of greenwash awareness. We conducted two experimental studies: A 10 (frames) x 2 (greenwash awareness: high vs. low) between‐subject experiment with 710 responses and a 25 (frames) x 2 (greenwash awareness: high vs. low) between‐subject experiment with 1586 responses. Results indicate that communication framed in natural well‐being, sustainable expertise, and environmental frames encouraged sustainable behavior more than other frames. Multiple frames are more persuasive than single frames in increasing the intention of sustainable action. Greenwash awareness exerts moderating impacts on the framing effects. The current research is the first exploration to shed light on framing strategies of climate change communications by taking non‐climate frames and greenwash awareness into consideration. We offer actionable insights into how enterprises can strategically use frames to improve performance and accountability in sustainable development.

The role of framing and effort in green nudging acceptance

Abstract Whether nudges succeed in promoting pro-environmental behavior strongly depends on their public acceptance. Prior literature shows that the framing of nudges, i.e., whether they address the individual (personal framing) or the society (societal framing), is one critical factor in determining nudging acceptance. Since a personal framing highlights the costs individuals have to bear to comply, we hypothesize that people accept nudges more when addressing the general public rather than themselves personally. We expect the framing effect to be stronger for nudges that elicit high-effort behavior than low-effort behavior. Results of multilevel linear regression analyses in two online experiments (nStudy 1 = 294, nobs = 4,410; nStudy 2 = 565, nobs = 11,300) reveal an opposite pattern: People accept nudges more when personally (vs societally) framed. As predicted, nudges receive higher support when the promoted behavior is perceived as low effort. Exploratory path analysis in Study 2 shows that the perceived effectiveness of the nudge mediates the positive relation between personal framing and nudging acceptance. This project provides novel insights on facilitators and barriers in nudging acceptance and their implications for policy-making.

Finding the Right Voice: How CEO Communication on the Russia–Ukraine War Drives Public Engagement and Digital Activism

This research examines the influence of CEO versus brand communication on public engagement and digital activism during the Russia–Ukraine war. Brand communication refers to messages sent out through an organization's social media accounts, whereas CEO communication comes from the executive's personal account. The authors depart from an analysis of 236,119 tweets investigating the effects of message sender (CEO vs. brand), message framing (self vs. other), and message appeal (informational vs. emotional) on engagement (i.e., likes, retweets, and replies). To further understand, they subsequently deploy a 2 × 2 between-subjects design (N = 608) that introduces scenarios where either a CEO or brand proposes a public policy campaign, advocating support for U.S. citizens (self framing) or Ukrainian civilians (other framing). Key findings reveal that CEO communications foster greater engagement and digital activism than brand messages. CEO communication that merges self framed with informational appeals or other framed with emotional appeals outperforms brand messages regarding public engagement. In addition, CEO campaigns centered on Ukrainian civilians amplify digital activism, mirroring findings when brands approach the war's implications for U.S. citizens. Together, these insights unveil the intricate dance of message sender, framing, and appeal during global geopolitical events, providing vital knowledge for organizations and policy makers aiming to optimize public backing in times of war.

Communicating radon risks: the impact of different risk formulations on risk perception and protection intention

Communication campaigns addressing radon-related health risks have struggled to promote health-protective behaviour effectively. Typically framed as a ‘naturally occurring gas’, this study explores whether this framing might attenuate radon risk perception. It compares the impact of framing radon as an ‘indoor air pollutant’ versus a ‘natural gas’ on risk perceptions and on intentions to protect against radon. It also explores the role of perceptions of the burdensomeness of mitigation, self-efficacy and stigma as potential moderators of the framing effect for health protection intentions. Using Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI), 2,012 stratified respondents, representative of the Slovenian adult population, completed a survey. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of two radon frames: ‘indoor air pollutant’ or ‘natural gas’. Results reveal low compliance to test and mitigate radon, regardless of residing in high- or low-risk areas. Risk perception was significantly higher when framed as ‘Indoor air pollution.’ However, the ‘natural gas’ frame resulted in slightly stronger intentions to test and mitigate radon. The impact of framing on intentions was significantly moderated by (a) perceptions of the burdensomeness and (b) the stigma. In conclusion, how radon risk is framed in communication strategies needs careful attention, as it influences risk perception and individuals’ intentions to take action.

Framing beneficiary photos to elicit donations in online medical crowdfunding: through the perspectives of sympathy and deliberation

PurposeBeneficiary photos on charity appeals are believed to engender prosocial behavior. This study explores photo framing of healthy and unhealthy beneficiary photos in the context of photo-rich online medical crowdfunding. Based on framing theory, emphasis framing effect (i.e. unhealthy photos only vs both healthy and unhealthy photos) and equivalency framing effect (i.e. healthy photos prior to unhealthy photos vs unhealthy photos prior to healthy photos) are identified.Design/methodology/approachA scenario-based experiment with 135 participants was used to empirically test the proposed research hypotheses. The subjects were randomly assigned to three treatment groups, with 45 subjects in each group. ANOVA, linear regression, and multiple mediation analysis were used to analysis data.FindingsThe results reveal that disclosing both healthy and unhealthy photos can elicit stronger sympathy and perceived need than merely disclosing unhealthy photos. Moreover, the order of unhealthy photos prior to healthy photos leads to a higher level of sympathy than the order of healthy photos prior to unhealthy photos. Furthermore, sympathy and perceived need are positively related to donation intention.Originality/valueFirst, this study extends the photo-related research limited to certain characteristics of a single photo to the sequence effect of multiple photos. Second, this study contributes to framing theory by introducing photo framing, particularly the equivalence and emphasis framing effect of beneficiary photos. Finally, this study reveals the emotional and cognitive routes through which beneficiary photos stimulate prosocial behavior. It also offers practical guidance in the aspects of the framing effect of beneficiary photos for crowdfunding management.

Do large language models show decision heuristics similar to humans? A case study using GPT-3.5.

A Large Language Model (LLM) is an artificial intelligence system trained on vast amounts of natural language data, enabling it to generate human-like responses to written or spoken language input. Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT)-3.5 is an example of an LLM that supports a conversational agent called ChatGPT. In this work, we used a series of novel prompts to determine whether ChatGPT shows heuristics and other context-sensitive responses. We also tested the same prompts on human participants. Across four studies, we found that ChatGPT was influenced by random anchors in making estimates (anchoring, Study 1); it judged the likelihood of two events occurring together to be higher than the likelihood of either event occurring alone, and it was influenced by anecdotal information (representativeness and availability heuristic, Study 2); it found an item to be more efficacious when its features were presented positively rather than negatively-even though both presentations contained statistically equivalent information (framing effect, Study 3); and it valued an owned item more than a newly found item even though the two items were objectively identical (endowment effect, Study 4). In each study, human participants showed similar effects. Heuristics and context-sensitive responses in humans are thought to be driven by cognitive and affective processes such as loss aversion and effort reduction. The fact that an LLM-which lacks these processes-also shows such responses invites consideration of the possibility that language is sufficiently rich to carry these effects and may play a role in generating these effects in humans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Multifactorial effects on bounded rational decision-making

Conventional models of decision-making are predicated upon the notion of rational deliberation. However, empirical evidence has increasingly highlighted the pervasive role of bounded rationality in shaping decisional outcomes. The manifestation of bounded rationality is evident through a spectrum of cognitive biases and heuristics, including but not limited to anchoring, availability, the decoy effect, herd behavior, and the nuanced dynamics of reward and punishment, as well as the implications of weighting and framing effects. This prospective study is dedicated to a comprehensive exploration of such multiple factors together with their impacts to the architecture and functionality of decision-making processes, and their further research potentials as well.

Not Our War: The Effects of Response Strategies and Message Frames From a Russian Association on the Public’s Attitude Toward Russians Living in Germany

Not Our War: The Effects of Response Strategies and Message Frames From a Russian Association on the Public’s Attitude Toward Russians Living in Germany

When Prosocial Motives Matter Most: The Interactive Effects of Social Value Orientation, Message Framing, and Helping Costs on Helping Behavior

ABSTRACTWe advance prior work on prosocial behavior by examining the situations in which prosocial motives are more likely to influence helping behavior. Building on the arousal:cost‐reward model and the self‐discrepancy theory, we test the moderating effects of help request framing (benevolent vs. economic) and contextual costs of helping on the relationship between social value orientation (SVO) and helping behavior. In two experimental studies, we found evidence that prosocial individuals are more likely to help than proselfs especially when it is more costly to do so. Similarly, prosocial individuals help more when requests are framed in terms of benevolence but not when they are framed as an exchange. These findings suggest that prosocial motives foster helping when it is more challenging to do so—that is, when help seekers do not have much to offer in return as well as in costly situations.