Goal Framing Research Articles

Compliance Theory: A Goal Framing Approach

Despite a wealth of publications on compliance and noncompliance, regulation scholars still lack a consistent and comprehensive compliance theory and entertain a collection of partial and incompatible theories instead. This article is an attempt to improve this situation by taking up two interrelated challenges that compliance theorists are facing: to account for the multiple motivations behind compliance and noncompliance behaviors with one internally consistent framework and to account for the interactions between these motivations in other than an additive or ad hoc fashion. The article builds on Siegwart Lindenberg's Goal Framing Theory, which provides consistent accounts of the cumulated and interactive influence of heterogeneous motivations on decisions. The goal framing approach is illustrated with an extensive range of examples borrowed from the empirical literature on regulatory compliance. It thus provides a synthetic framework to account for different types of responses to regulation.

To save or to lose: does framing price promotion affect consumers' purchase intentions?

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the effect of framing price promotion on consumers' purchase intentions. Retailers typically use the term “save” to present their price deal offers. However, prospect theory predicts that people will be more willing to waive the gain of a certain amount of money, but less willing to lose the same amount of money.Design/methodology/approachUsing an experimental design, 497 participants were randomly assigned to two groups that differed only in the framing manipulations of two vignettes: positive framing (“save if you purchase”) or negative framing (“lose if you don't purchase”).FindingsThe prediction was not confirmed: participants did not show more willingness to purchase products offered in sales promotions of discount when presented with a negative frame relative to their presentation in the conventional positive frame.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could confirm the predictions of prospect theory, indicating that methodological characteristics prevented this study from confirming the hypothesis. However, if future research fails to confirm the predictions of prospect theory, it is possible that these predictions are limited to situations of forced choice between two alternatives, and do not apply to situations with a default option of not making a choice (e.g. price deals).Practical implicationsIf future research confirms the predictions of prospect theory, then retailers would improve their price promotion effectiveness by replacing their use of “save if you purchase” with “lose if you don't purchase”.Originality/valueThis study is the first attempt to examine the predictions of goal framing effect in the context of price deals.

Political Mobilization of Dutch Muslims: Religious Identity Salience, Goal Framing, and Normative Constraints

This article addresses the question of when and for what purpose Muslims will act collectively in the political arena. The impact of religious identity salience, goal framing, and normative constraints on political mobilization was examined in two Muslim communities with different group positions in Dutch society. Both Moroccan–Dutch and Turkish–Dutch Muslims expressed their willingness to take normative or nonnormative political action to promote religious (“defend Islam”), ethnic (“help homeland”), or superordinate group goals (“protect human rights”). When their Muslim identity was made salient, Moroccan Muslims were more ready to take normative action to promote religious goals and also more likely to engage in nonnormative action. In contrast, Turkish Muslims were less willing to take action when their Muslim identity was salient, except for superordinate human rights goals. Our findings caution against simplistic assumptions about all Muslims by contextualizing the ways in which religion plays out in the political arena.

Quando a forma importa: o efeito de configuração de mensagens na tomada de decisão

O presente artigo se propôs a realizar uma revisão da literatura sobre o efeito de configuração na tomada de decisão. O efeito de configuração refere-se ao achado de que as pessoas respondem de forma distinta a diferentes descrições de um mesmo problema. Para tanto, foi explorado o surgimento da teoria dos prospectos (também denominada teoria prospectiva), que deu origem aos estudos sobre o efeito de configuração, considerando as diferentes variáveis usualmente relacionadas ao referido efeito. O avanço dos estudos culminou no achado de diferentes tipos de efeito de configuração (de risco, de objetivos e de atributos), que divergem quanto a definições operacionais, padrões de resultados e teorias para a interpretação. A teoria dos prospectos, entretanto, prestar-se-ia apenas para a análise e a interpretação do referido efeito exclusivamente em um contexto de risco.

Taking the Long View: Environmental Sustainability and Delay of Gratification

Changing human behavior to support environmental sustainability will often require delaying gratification of consumptive goals. This article reviews findings from the delay of gratification and temporal discounting literatures, examining the implications of these results for environmental behavior‐change goals and programs. Evidence indicates that the ability to delay gratification is strongly influenced by the salience and difficulty of immediate versus delayed goals, so context management is vital to facilitate long‐term environmental goals. The influence of belief on long‐term goal attainment and goal framing also suggests a role for targeting individual beliefs and skills in education programs.

Violations-Inducing Framing Effects of Production Goals: Conditions under which goal setting leads to neglecting safety-relevant rules

Violations are a problem for safety-critical organizations, which need to trust in their workers' compliance with rules and regulations. In two studies we investigate the impact of the framing of production outcome goals. The first study was designed in accordance with the classic framing experiments by Kahneman and Tversky (1983) as a paper-based case with two groups ( N=72) reading a story in which they are to envisage themselves in the position of the production supervisor, who decides to comply with or violate a safety-relevant rule in order to meet the production goal. The two groups differ in the framing of the production outcome goals in terms of losses or gains. In contrast to our assumptions and to previous findings, we were unable to replicate the framing effect for a production setting, but 35–45% of participants in both groups were willing to violate the normative rule, independently of the framing. In the second experiment ( N = 39), the experimental groups acted out the role of the supervisor and were trained to use two different start-up strategies for the plant. In the final trial, participants were told that their salary would depend on their performance in this last trial. As a result, in the loss framing conditions, significantly more participants violated the normative rule than in the gain framing condition. Finally, we discuss the implications of framing effects for production settings and their impact on the probability of choosing to violate normative rules.

Competing Frames for a Public Health Issue and Their Effects on Public Opinion

This study examines the effects of goal framing on opinion about a public health issue. A content analysis of newspaper coverage regarding a New York City trans fat ban identified four frames, each of which invoked a policy goal (promoting public health or protecting business). An experiment tested the effects of goal framing on support for banning trans fat, as well as the effects of competition between frames invoking the same goal and competition between frames invoking different goals. The findings suggest that goal framing can shape opinion about public health issues but that competitive framing can undermine these effects.

Perspectives on Adolescent Residential Substance Abuse Treatment: When Are Adolescents Done?

Perspectives on Adolescent Residential Substance Abuse Treatment: When Are Adolescents Done?

Short-Term Communication Effects or Longstanding Dispositions? The Public’s Response to the Financial Crisis of 2008

Economic interests and party identification are two key, long-standing factors that shape people’s attitudes on government policy. Recent research has increasingly focused on how short-term communication effects (e.g., issue framing, media priming) also influence public opinion. Rather than posit that political attitudes reflect one source of considerations more than another, we argue that the two interact in a significant and theoretically predictable manner. To explore this claim, we examine the American public’s attitudes towards the government’s response to the financial crisis of 2008. We designed three survey experiments conducted on a large national sample, in which we examine the influence of (1) group-serving biases, (2) goal framing, and (3) threshold sensitivity. We find that economic standing and partisanship moderate the impact of communication effects as a function of their content. Our results demonstrate how people’s sensitivity to peripheral presentational features interacts with more fundamental dispositions in shaping attitudes on complex policy issues.

Guidelines for Shaping Perceptions of Fairness of Transportation Infrastructure Policies: The Case of a Vehicle Mileage Tax

Abstract Regulatory focus theory is used to study individuals' perceptions of fairness towards a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)-based transportation funding policy. According to regulatory focus theory, messages are more effective when they are congruent with the goal framing promotion (gains) or prevention (loss avoidance) focus of the recipients (i.e., there is a regulatory fit). This study confirms an interaction effect when the information in a message is congruent with the regulatory orientation of the individual. In addition, we find that the sensitivity towards fairness is more pronounced when subjects exhibit a prevention fit than when they exhibit a promotion fit. Our findings emphasize the importance of regulatory focus as it concerns public perceptions of potential transportation funding policy and provide useful guidelines for related outreach messaging strategies for influencing them.

Guidelines for Shaping Perceptions of Fairness of Transportation Infrastructure Policies: The Case of a Vehicle Mileage Tax

Abstract Regulatory focus theory is used to study individuals' perceptions of fairness towards a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)-based transportation funding policy. According to regulatory focus theory, messages are more effective when they are congruent with the goal framing promotion (gains) or prevention (loss avoidance) focus of the recipients (i.e., there is a regulatory fit). This study confirms an interaction effect when the information in a message is congruent with the regulatory orientation of the individual. In addition, we find that the sensitivity towards fairness is more pronounced when subjects exhibit a prevention fit than when they exhibit a promotion fit. Our findings emphasize the importance of regulatory focus as it concerns public perceptions of potential transportation funding policy and provide useful guidelines for related outreach messaging strategies for influencing them.

Improving the Micro-Foundations of Actor-Centered Institutionalism

Institutionalist scholarship in political science has increasingly underscored the importance of agency in processes of institutional reproduction and change. This increasing “actor-centeredness” has so far not led to the development of a coherent theory of individual action that enables us to explain processes whereby shifts in logics of action occur and contribute to broader institutional processes. In this paper we present Goal Framing Theory (GFT) as a powerful theoretical tool in order to cover this gap. GFT provides a theory of goal-oriented action that explains not only how various logics of action coexist at the individual level, but also how they interact to influence actors’ behavior. Based on two empirical examples – patient capital in France and Germany, and foreign ownership of corporate stocks in Switzerland –, we show that GFT has the potential to provide a behavioral foundation for processes of institutional reproduction and change that are the result of shifts of logics of action.

Sex differences in framing effects across task domain

The present study investigated how task domain moderated sex differences in framing effects. Five hundred and 86 participants (63.3% female) were randomly assigned to different frame valences (i.e., positive vs. negative) and different task domains (i.e., life-death vs. money vs. time). A participant finished all three framing task types: attribute, goal, and risky-choice frames. Results showed that in the life-death domain, females (vs. males) exhibited stronger responses to negative frames. In the monetary domain, males (vs. females) showed a greater response to negative frames. In the time domain, the patterns of sex differences were inconsistent across different framing tasks such that in the goal framing task, females were more willing to take actions under negative (vs. positive) frames while males were just the opposite; in the risk-choice task, female were more inclined to take risks under positive (vs. negative) frames while males did not show significant framing effects. These results indicated that the framing effect is sex-specific, varying according to the gender role in different task domains. The present research highlights the necessity to distinguish, rather than combine, individual judgments and decision-makings in different task domains when investigating framing effects.

El desarrollo del proceso de “Bolonia” y el Grado de Medicina. Situación actual y expectativas para su implantación definitiva

The implementation of the European Higher Education Area, (EEES in Spanish) inspired in the Bologna Declaration, pursues the introduction of new teaching and learning paradigms which require deep changes in the frame of superior education and university goals. However, in spite that the main purpose of the EEES is convergence and harmonization of curricula contents and titles throughout Europe in order to facilitate circulation of students and professionals, this goal is far from been reached when we are approaching the deadline for its implementation (year 2010). In addition, this process has led to reduce the total duration of the majority of degrees excepting for medicine and few more. In this article we analyze the underdevelopment of the so called Bologna Process in medical education as compared to other careers. Implementation of curricular innovations seems particularly restrained or threatened in Spain because of legal improvisation, lack of funding, and the chronic apathy of national bodies in medical education. As a consequence, and in contrast with other European countries where deep curricular changes have been already arranged, the majority of Spanish Faculties are at risk of introducing little more than cosmetic modifications in their medicine curricula.

The role of contexts in attaining future goals facilitates the learning process

According to expectancy-value theories, increasing the utility value of a learning activity by indicating its instrumentality to attain two future goals rather than only one of those two should result in higher motivation and more optimal learning. In contrast, self-determination theory considers future goal content next to goals quantity. Experimental studies tested this hypothesis. Contrast-cell analyses showed that framing learning activity for a future intrinsic and extrinsic goal facilitated mastery orientation, performance and persistence and decreased a performance approach orientation compared to single future extrinsic goal condition. However, in line with self-determination theory, double goal framing resulted in a less optimal pattern of outcomes compared to the single future intrinsic goal condition, suggesting that the content of the provided goal matters.

Practicing Safe Computing: A Multimethod Empirical Examination of Home Computer User Security Behavioral Intentions

Although firms are expending substantial resources to develop technology and processes that can help safeguard the security of their computing assets, increased attention is being focused on the role people play in maintaining a safe computing environment. Unlike employees in a work setting, home users are not subject to training, nor are they protected by a technical staff dedicated to keeping security software and hardware current. Thus, with over one billion people with access to the Internet, individual home computer users represent a significant point of weakness in achieving the security of the cyber infrastructure. We study the phenomenon of conscientious cybercitizens, defined as individuals who are motivated to take the necessary precautions under their direct control to secure their own computer and the Internet in a home setting. Using a multidisciplinary, phased approach, we develop a conceptual model of the conscientious cybercitizen. We present results from two studies-a survey and an experiment-conducted to understand the drivers of intentions to perform security-related behavior, and the interventions that can positively influence these drivers. In the first study, we use protection motivation theory as the underlying conceptual foundation and extend the theory by drawing upon the public goods literature and the concept of psychological ownership. Results from a survey of 594 home computer users from a wide range of demographic and socio-economic backgrounds suggest that a home computer user's intention to perform security-related behavior is influenced by a combination of cognitive, social, and psychological components. In the second study, we draw upon the concepts of goal framing and self-view to examine how the proximal drivers of intentions to perform security-related behavior identified in the first study can be influenced by appropriate messaging. An experiment with 101 subjects is used to test the research hypotheses. Overall, the two studies shed important new light on creating more conscientious cybercitizens. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Political Activism as Part of a Broader Civic Engagement

This article examines the impact of a Florida health care union’s political activities on broader member “civic engagement.” Its grassroots political approach (membership education, leadership development, mobilizational structures, and capacity) and a broad “public interest” framing of goals has stimulated new forms of civic engagement by its volunteer leaders and members. Alternative explanations of its success in terms of membership demographics and method of conducting political activities is conducted, with the latter providing most of the explanation. This approach to politics is commended to the labor movement at large, both for its effectiveness and its legitimizing role in U.S. public opinion.

Soviet legacies in post-Soviet Russia: insights from crisis management

This paper singles out elements of continuity in the Russian path to development and growth after transformation to market under the assumption that Soviet legacies have a bearing on current policies and provide some insights as to how the Russian market system may develop in the future. Drawing from the development and the specifics of the financial crisis in Russia, the paper focuses on the frame of mind, behaviour, goals and means of Russian policy-makers that are reminiscent of Soviet formal and informal institutions and may have an impact on post-crisis developments and structures. A sui generis corporate state is emerging, the basic features of which range from the complex of the great power and belief in the state as a driver of growth to secrecy, mutual distrust, lack of transparency and accountability, and efforts to increase command on resources. The seeds of a Russian-style corporate state that emerged in the early 2000s with the creation of goskorporatsii are reinforced by economic slow-down and Russia-specific market failures. Competition for power – the President versus the Premier – may help strengthen the demand from below for a stronger state and limited property rights. Retrenchment from competition, openness to Foreign Direct Investment and commitment to entry into the WTO expose the country to the risk of prolonged technological backwardness and possible regression to a society where private elite organisations are closely tied to the state and institutions are subservient to the leadership: a framework highly unsuitable for modernisation and growth.

`What is the usefulness of your schoolwork?'

Various motivational frameworks converge to suggest that highlighting the relevance of a learning activity yields benefits for students' learning and performance. Herein, we review a set of studies grounded in self-determination theory's distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic goals, which show that the beneficial effect of a learning activity's utility value should be nuanced. Specifically, this effect depends on the particular goal that activity is thought to serve, such that intrinsic goal framing enhances learning and performance, whereas extrinsic goal framing does not. Such effects emerge regardless of students' personal goal preferences. Overall, this research suggests that teachers might do well to consider the content of the promoted goal when highlighting the utility value of a learning activity.

Self‐Regulation in Goal Striving: Individual Differences and Situational Moderators of the Goal‐Framing/Performance Link1

We propose that negative goal framing (i.e., defining a goal as a negative state to be avoided) can adversely affect performance. Study 1 (N = 133) revealed that negative goal framing predicted poorer future performance independent of goal level, expectancy, and earlier performance. Study 2 (N = 188) examined the relation between goal framing and performance at 2 times in the academic year, and with respect to individual differences in defensive pessimism. As predicted, the negative goal‐framing/poorer‐performance link was greater on a later exam (after receiving feedback) than an earlier one, and was greater for nondefensive pessimists than for defensive pessimists. The findings implicate self‐regulatory processes in understanding how goal framing affects performance.