Loss-framed Condition Research Articles

Temporal Distance, Message Framing, and Consideration of Future Consequences: Parents’ Willingness to Vaccinate Children Aged 5–11 Against COVID-19

ABSTRACT Based on the construal level theory (CLT), this experiment employed a 2 (message framing: gain vs. loss) × 2 (temporal framing: proximal vs. distal) × 2 (consideration of future consequences: low vs. high) between-subjects factorial design. Parents (N = 409) of 5- to 11-year-old children in the United States from a pool of candidates pre-screened by Qualtrics participated in this study. Results indicated that parents with high CFC-Future were more receptive to messages advocating getting their children vaccinated against COVID-19. Parents with high CFC-Future reported higher risk perception in response to the proximal messages compared to the distal messages. For parents focusing on more distant outcomes, proximal messages generated more positive attitude and greater intention compared to distal messages in the loss-framed condition. The difference was not significant in the gain-framed condition. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed. Limitations and directions for future research were outlined.

The role of conspiracy mentality, reactance, and anxiety in the effectiveness of gain- vs. loss-framed messages promoting COVID-19 protective measures: Is vaccination different?

We explore how conspiracy beliefs change the effectiveness of gain- vs. loss-framed messages in promoting health-protective behavior. We focused on various recommended COVID-19 protective measures, not only vaccinations but also other preventive (like wearing masks) and detection behaviors (like testing). Our results indicate that conspiracy beliefs moderate the effectiveness of gain vs. loss framing. When participants endorse conspiracy worldviews above the average level, the gain frame may be more effective than the loss frame. In other words, in the loss frame condition, conspiracy beliefs negatively and significantly predicted attitudes toward the behavior recommended. However, in the case of the gain frame, the relationship between conspiracist views and attitudes toward promoted behavior was weaker or even nonsignificant. We also found, although only in the case of one behavior, that when participants' eagerness to look for conspiracies almost does not exist, the loss frame may be a better option than the gain frame. Finally, neither of these effects was mediated by emotional reactance or anxiety.

A negative emotional context disrupts the framing effect on outcome evaluation in decision making under uncertainty: An ERP study.

The framing effect refers to the phenomenon that different descriptions of the same option lead to a shift in the choice of the decision maker. Several studies have found that emotional contexts irrelevant to a decision in progress still influence the framing effect on decision making. However, little is known about the potential role of emotional contexts in the framing effect on outcome evaluation under uncertainty and the related neural mechanisms. The present study measured event-related potentials (ERPs) to capture the time series of brain activities during the processing of gain- and loss-framed choices and outcomes primed with neutral and negative emotional contexts. The results revealed that in the neutral emotional context, the P300 amplitudes following both positive and negative feedback were greater in the gain-framed condition than those in the loss-framed condition, demonstrating a framing effect, whereas in the negative emotional context, this effect was unstable and observed only following negative feedback. In contrast, regardless of whether the feedback was positive or negative, the framing effect on the feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitudes was insensitive to neutral and negative emotional contexts. Furthermore, the time-frequency analysis showed that the framing effect on the theta power related to the FRN was also insensitive to neutral and negative emotional contexts. Our findings suggest that brain responses to framing effects on outcome evaluation in a later cognitive appraisal stage of decision making under uncertainty may depend on the emotional context, as the effects were observed only following negative feedback in the negative emotional context.

Framing Effects in Older Adults' Medical Decision-Making: Social Distance Matters.

The present study sought to explore how decision making is influenced by aging, framing, and social distance in the medical domain. Based on Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, we predicted that social distance would moderate age differences of framing effects as a result of older adults' emphasis on close partners. Younger and middle-aged (N = 206) and older (N = 208) adults from Shanghai, China completed 2 medical decision tasks in which they were presented with different descriptions of social distance, namely deciding for close relatives or for strangers. Participants' risk preferences were measured. The results showed that framing effects were a function of social distance in older adults. Older adults showed smaller framing effects when making decisions for strangers as their preference for the riskier option was reduced in the loss-framed condition. For younger and middle-aged adults, framing effects existed consistently regardless of social distance. These findings suggest that social distance moderates age differences in framing effects in medical decision-making. It also highlights a potential way to improve older adults' medical decision-making quality: having older adults imagine as if they are making medical decisions for a stranger.

The influence of gain-loss framing and its interaction with political ideology on social distancing and mask wearing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of cases and over half a million deaths in the United States. While health experts urge citizens to adopt preventative measures such as social distancing and wearing a mask, these recommended behaviors are not always followed by the public. To find a way to promote preventative measures, the present study examined the role of gain-loss framing of COVID-19 related messages on social distancing and mask wearing compliance. Moreover, the study also tested potential moderating effects on framing with three individual characteristics: political ideology, subjective numeracy, and risk attitude. A sample of 375 U.S. adult residents were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Each participant read either a gain or loss-framed message related to practicing protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants also completed scales of preventative behaviors, risk attitude, subjective numeracy, political ideology, and other demographic variables. It was found that those who were more liberal, risk-averse and had greater subjective numeracy were more likely to wear a mask and/or follow social distancing. Furthermore, in the presence of demographic and psychological factors, the study found participants in the loss-framed condition than in the gain-framed condition were more likely to adopt both preventative measures, supporting the notion of loss aversion. Additionally, the framing effect was also moderated by political ideology on mask-wearing, with the effect being stronger in liberals than in conservatives. Collectively, the study implies message framing may be a useful means to promote preventative measures in the current pandemic.

Getting to the Heart of the Matter in Later Life: The Central Role of Affect in Health Message Framing.

Adopting healthy behaviors is often influenced by message framing; gain-framed messages emphasize the benefits of engaging in a behavior, whereas loss-framed messages highlight the consequences of not engaging in a behavior. Research has begun to uncover the underlying affective pathways involved in message framing. In the current study, we examined the role of affect in message framing to encourage exercise program enrollment among older adults. We mailed flyers to 126 volunteers assigned to a gain- or loss-framed condition and measured their affective reactions to the flyer and enrollment intentions. After the call, participants had the opportunity to contact us to enroll. Gain versus loss framing led to more positive affect toward the flyer, which predicted intentions and enrollment effort. In indirect effect analyses, frame indirectly influenced intentions and enrollment effort via positive affect. Although message framing plays an indirect role in influencing behavior, affect plays a central role.

Applying behavioural science to increase uptake of the NHS Health Check: a randomised controlled trial of gain- and loss-framed messaging in the national patient information leaflet

BackgroundThe NHS Health Check (NHSHC) is a national programme for the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Patients aged 40–74 without an existing cardiovascular-related condition should be invited quinquennially. Uptake is lower than anticipated. We assessed the impact on uptake of two new behaviourally-enhanced leaflets (with the current national leaflet as a control), enclosed with the invitation letter: the first trial on the leaflet.MethodsA double-blind three-armed randomized controlled trial was conducted. The new leaflets were shorter (two pages, instead of four); one was loss-framed (‘don’t miss out’) and the other was gain-framed (‘make the most of life’). The participants were patients from 39 practices in Lewisham and 17 practices in NE Lincolnshire, who were allocated to interventions using a random-number generator and received one of the leaflets with their invitation letter from April–September 2018. The outcome measure was uptake of an NHSHC by November 2018. The trial was powered to detect a 2% effect.ResultsUptake was 17.6% in the control condition (n = 3677), 17.4% in the loss-framed condition (n = 3664), and 18.2% in the gain-framed condition (n = 3697). Leaflet type was not a significant predictor of NHSHC uptake in a logistic regression that controlled for demographic variables, with GP practice as a random effect. Statistically significant predictors of uptake included location (higher uptake in Lewisham), age (increased age was associated with increased attendance) and sex (higher uptake in females). The Bayes Factor comparing the null to a hypothesis of differences between conditions was 416, which is extreme evidence in favour of the null hypothesis.ConclusionThere was no evidence for a meaningful effect of either a loss-framed or gain-framed behaviourally-informed leaflet type on uptake, which is surprising, given that behaviourally informed letters have improved uptake of NHSHCs. It is possible that people do not pay attention to leaflets that are enclosed with letters, or that the leaflet continues to support informed decision-making but this does not affect uptake.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, NCT03524131. Registered May 14, 2018. Retrospectively registered.

Prevention Focus Relates to Performance on a Loss-Framed Inhibitory Control Task.

Information framing can be critical to the impact of information and can affect individuals differently. One contributing factor is a person’s regulatory focus, which describes their focus on achieving gains vs. avoiding losses. We hypothesized that alignment between individual regulatory focus and the framing of performance feedback as either gain or loss would enhance performance improvements from computer-based training. We measured participants’ (N = 93) trait-level regulatory focus; they then trained in a go/no-go inhibitory control task with feedback framed as gains, losses, or control feedback conditions. Some changes in performance with training (correct rejection rate and response time) were consistent with regulatory fit, but only in the loss-framed condition. This suggests that regulatory fit is more complex than cursory categorization of trait regulatory focus and feedback framing might indicate. Regulatory fit, feedback framing, and task affordances should be considered when designing feedback or including game-like feedback elements to aid computer-based training.

The effect of message framing on self-management of chronic pain: A new perspective on intervention?

This study examines framed messages as a novel approach to promote self-management of chronic pain. Primary care patients reporting chronic pain (pain rated ≥ 4 on 0–10 NRS-I for ≥3 months) were randomly assigned to receive a gain- or loss-framed message promoting self-management of pain. Impact of the framed message on behavioural self-management (including communicating with providers, relaxation, activity pacing, pleasant activities and healthy lifestyle) was assessed. Post-message, individuals in the loss-frame condition reported significantly greater interest in and more knowledge gained from the information presented in the message (p ≤ 0.03). Loss-frame participants were significantly more likely to express confidence that they would practice relaxation (p ≤ 0.03). Pain readiness to change, pain self-efficacy and message frame independently influenced motivation to engage in relaxation as a self-management strategy. Across all behaviours assessed, there were no observed interactions between message frame and either pain self-efficacy or pain readiness to change (p > 0.05). Framing may be useful to promote pain self-management; larger trials are needed to fully evaluate its potential and to further assess the applicability of framed communication to impact a broader range of chronic conditions.

Bounded Ethicality

Ethical decision making is vulnerable to the forces of automaticity. People behave differently in the face of a potential loss versus a potential gain, even when the two situations are transparently identical. Across three experiments, decision makers engaged in more unethical behavior if a decision was presented in a loss frame than if the decision was presented in a gain frame. In Experiment 1, participants in the loss-frame condition were more likely to favor gathering "insider information" than were participants in the gain-frame condition. In Experiment 2, negotiators in the loss-frame condition lied more than negotiators in the gain-frame condition. In Experiment 3, the tendency to be less ethical in the loss-frame condition occurred under time pressure and was eliminated through the removal of time pressure.

Message framing for smoking cessation: The interaction of risk perceptions and gender

Because quitting smoking is clearly linked to preventing health problems such as lung cancer, research on health message framing based on prospect theory suggests that gain-framed messages (i.e., emphasizing the benefits of quitting smoking) would be more persuasive in promoting cessation than loss-framed messages (i.e., emphasizing the costs of continuing to smoke). However, because women tend to anticipate greater perceived risk from quitting smoking than men, this may affect how receptive they are to specific message framing interventions. Data from 249 participants (129 females, 120 males) in a clinical trial of message framing for smoking cessation with bupropion were used to examine how gender differences in perceptions of the risks associated with quitting influence the effects of framed interventions using number of days to smoking relapse as the criterion. Perceived risk of quitting scores were dichotomized using a median split for the entire sample. Women reported a higher perceived risk of cessation than men. Participants who anticipated high risks associated with quitting smoking reported fewer days to relapse. Further, females in the gain-framed condition who reported low perceived risks of cessation had a greater number of days to relapse, as opposed to females in the loss-framed condition. These findings suggest that message framing interventions for smoking cessation should consider the influence of gender and risk perceptions associated with quitting on the effectiveness of framed interventions.

The Effects of Message Framing on College Students' Career Decision Making

Social cognitive career theory posits that verbal persuasion can affect individuals' career self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals and/or intentions, and behaviors. Prospect theory holds that negatively framed messages can have a powerful effect on people's cognitions related to adopting particular behaviors in situations of uncertainty. Drawing from these two theories, this study explored the effect that persuasive messages have on college students' career decision-making cognitions and behaviors. Results indicated that written persuasive messages enhanced college students' career decision-making outcome expectations, intentions, and behaviors. How the message was framed (whether gain or loss framed) did not differentially affect students' career cognitions, yet students in the loss-framed condition engaged in more career-related behaviors in the week following the message than students in the gain-framed condition.

Comparing gain- and loss-framed messages for smoking cessation with sustained-release bupropion: A randomized controlled trial.

Prospect theory suggests that because smoking cessation is a prevention behavior with a fairly certain outcome, gain-framed messages will be more persuasive than loss-framed messages when attempting to encourage smoking cessation. To test this hypothesis, the authors randomly assigned participants (N=258) in a clinical trial to either a gain- or loss-framed condition, in which they received factually equivalent video and printed messages encouraging smoking cessation that emphasized either the benefits of quitting (gains) or the costs of continuing to smoke (losses), respectively. All participants received open label sustained-release bupropion (300 mg/day) for 7 weeks. In the intent-to-treat analysis, the difference between the experimental groups by either point prevalence or continuous abstinence was not statistically significant. Among 170 treatment completers, however, a significantly higher proportion of participants were continuously abstinent in the gain-framed condition as compared with the loss-framed condition. These data suggest that gain-framed messages may be more persuasive than loss-framed messages in promoting early success in smoking cessation for participants who are engaged in treatment.

High Levels of Behavioral Compliance in a Realistic Product Assembly Task

This study examined the effects of message framing on behavioral compliance in the context of a believable lab-based scenario designed to disguise the true purpose of the research. Participants were led to believe that the study's purpose was to improve the instructions that accompany consumer products requiring full or partial assembly and that they would perform a carpentry task that involved the use of several types of manual and power tools (e.g., a circular saw). The assembly instructions provided to them either did or did not contain a framing message. When it was present, the message was either framed positively (gain-frame) or negatively (loss-frame), or it merely instructed them to use personal protective equipment (PPEs) as directed by the on-product warning. An important outcome was the relatively high level of behavioral compliance observed. The message framing manipulation was not successful, but slightly higher levels of compliance were observed among participants in the loss-frame condition. Unexpectedly, level of experience (operating the circular saw) was positively related to compliance. This finding contrasts with the usual familiarity effects reported in other warnings research. Implications of this study for future research are discussed.