Attribute Framing and Goal Framing Effects in Health Decisions

Levin, Schneider, and Gaeth (LSG, 1998) have distinguished among three types of framing—risky choice, attribute, and goal framing—to reconcile conflicting findings in the literature. In the research reported here, we focus on attribute and goal framing. LSG propose that positive frames should be more effective than negative frames in the context of attribute framing, and negative frames should be more effective than positive frames in the context of goal framing. We test this framework by manipulating frame valence (positive vs negative) and frame type (attribute vs goal) in a unified context with common procedures. We also argue that the nature of effects in a goal-framing context may depend on the extent to which the research topic has “intrinsic self-relevance” to the population. In the context of medical decision making, we operationalize low intrinsic self-relevance by using student subjects and high intrinsic self-relevance by using patients. As expected, we find complete support for the LSG framework under low intrinsic self-relevance and modified support for the LSG framework under high intrinsic self-relevance. Overall, our research appears to confirm and extend the LSG framework.     

The Role of Inference in Attribute Framing Effects

Previous research has shown that a speaker's choice between logically equivalent frames is influenced by reference point information, and that listeners draw accurate inferences based on the frame. Less clear, however, is whether these inferences play a causal role in generating attribute framing effects. Two experiments are reported, which suggest that frame‐dependent inferences are sufficient to generate attribute framing effects, and that blocking such inferences may block framing effects. Experiment 1 decomposed the typical framing design into two parts: One group of participants saw a target described in one of two attribute frames and reported their estimates (inferences) of the typical attribute value. These estimates were then given to a second group of yoked participants, who evaluated the target. Although this latter group was not exposed to different attribute frames, they nevertheless exhibited a “framing effect” as a result of receiving systematically different inferences. In contrast, Experiment 2 shows that experts—who are familiar with an attribute's distribution and are therefore less likely to draw strong frame‐based inferences—exhibit a diminished framing effect. Together, these findings underscore the role of inferences in the generation and attenuation of attribute framing effects. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

阈下特征框架效应心理机制初探

特征框架效应是指当分别以积极框架和消极框架来描述给定情景中的某一事物或事件的关键特征时,一般情况下人们更偏好以积极框架来描述其关键特征的事物或事件的现象.本研究通过2个实验验证了阈下特征框架效应的存在及其产生机制.实验一发现,阈下特征框架效应只在有时间压力下才会产生.实验二发现,被试对与框架类型一致的词汇判断的反应时比对与框架类型不一致的词汇判断的反应时更快,这在一定程度上说明特征框架效应的产生是因为框架激活了与框架一致性的信息,起到了语义启动的作用,从而导致被试判断任务的评定值偏向该框架类型.     

Children and the War on Iraq: Developmental Differences in Fear Responses to Television News Coverage

The purpose of this study was to examine age-related differences in children's responses to news coverage of the War on Iraq. To this end, a random sample of 161 parents of 5- to 17-year-olds in Ingham County, Michigan was surveyed about their child's fear responses to the war and patterns of exposure. Using developmental theory and research, age-related hypotheses were advanced. The results show that 13- to 17-year-olds reportedly watched more news coverage of the war and experienced greater fear/concern than did 5- to 8-year-olds. Also consistent with predictions, younger children were reportedly more scared by concrete, visual dangers depicted in the news whereas older children were reportedly more scared by abstract, verbally communicated threats. Despite multiple controls, news viewing of the War on Iraq was a significant and positive predictor of children's heightened safety concerns but not behavioral manifestations of upset.     

特征框架效应的心理机制与影响因素

特征框架效应是指当分别以积极框架和消极框架来描述给定情境中某一事物或事件的关键特征时, 一般情况下人们更偏好以积极框架来描述其关键特征的事物或事件的现象。特征框架效应广泛的存在于消费、医学及政治等领域。目前, 它的解释机制主要包括效价加工的认知机制、参照依赖、查询理论以及认知神经机制。它的影响因素主要包括经验、人格特质、计算能力以及认知闭合需要等。未来的研究应该从深入探索特征框架效应的产生根源和影响因素, 拓展其应用研究, 深入探索偏好消极框架下的特征框架效应以及探讨该现象与其它现象之间的关系等五方面展开。     

World Poverty and the Concept of Causal Responsibility

Abstract

This article approaches world poverty from the perspective of rectificatory justice and investigates whether the global rich can be said to have special obligations toward the global poor on the grounds that they have been harming them. The focus rests on the present situation, and more specifically on Thomas Pogge’s thesis of a causal link between world poverty and the conduct of present citizens (and governments) in wealthy countries. I argue that, if Pogge does not want his position to boil down to an institutional version of the ‘negative causation’-thesis - according to which one can cause harm simpiy by failing to alleviate it - and if he wants it to be accepted by those he seeks to convince - namely right-libertarians - he must specify that it is enough for institutions to be just that they do not actively deprive their members of the means of subsistence, even if many of them still do not have the capacity to enjoy the means of subsistence.     

Visual and Auditory Message Framing Effects on Tobacco Smoking1

Persuasive health messages can be framed to emphasize the benefits of adopting a health behavior (gains) or the risks of not adopting it (losses). This study examined the effects of message framing on beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors relevant to cigarette smoking. In video presentations about tobacco smoking, visual images and auditory voiceover content were framed either as gains or losses, yielding 4 message conditions. Undergraduates (N= 437) attending a public university in New England were assigned randomly to view one of these messages. Gain‐framed messages about smoking in visual and auditory modalities shifted smoking‐related beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in the direction of avoidance and cessation. Health‐communication experts, when promoting prevention behaviors like smoking avoidance or cessation, may wish to diverge from the tradition of using loss‐framed messages and fear appeals in this domain, and instead consider using gain‐framed appeals that present the advantages of not smoking.     

Effects of Goat Framing in Job Advertisements on Organizational Attractiveness1

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of goal framing in job advertisements on organizational attractiveness. Job ads were created that emphasized the potential costs or losses of not applying (i.e., loss frame) or the potential gains or benefits of applying (i.e., gain frame). The first experiment (N= 70) found that participants were more attracted to the company in the gain‐framed ad than in the loss‐framed ad. The second experiment (N= 100) attempted to determine the reason for the greater attractiveness of the gain‐framed ad compared to the loss‐framed ad. Two possible explanations— valence‐based encoding and regulatory focus—were examined. Results suggest that both valence‐based encoding and regulatory focus mediated the relationship between framing and organizational attractiveness.     

Framing Effects in International Relations

Framing is the least well-developed central concept of prospect theory. Framing is both fundamental to prospect theory and remarkably underdeveloped in the prospect theory literature. This paper focuses on the many subtypes and variations of framing: thematic vs. evaluative; successful vs. failed; productive vs. counterproductive; purposeful, structural and interactive framing; counterframing; loss frames vs. gain frames; revolving framing vs. sequential framing; framing by a third party; and framing vs. priming. The bulk of the paper provides an analysis of framing and framing effects in foreign policy settings with an emphasis on U.S. foreign policy. We highlight framing effects during the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War, the current ``war on terrorism', and other IR/foreign policy settings. Our examination highlights the extent to which presidents and other significant world leaders use framing to shape policy debates and national security choices.     

The Psychology of News Influence and the Development of Media Framing Analysis

How precisely do media influence their readers, listeners and viewers? In this paper, we argue that any serious study of the psychology of media influence must incorporate a systematic analysis of media material. However, psychology presently lacks a methodology for doing this that is sensitive to context, relying on generalised methods like content or discourse analysis. In this paper, we develop an argument to support our development of a technique that we have called Media Framing Analysis (MFA), a formal procedure for conducting analyses of (primarily news) media texts. MFA draws on elements of existing framing research from communication and other social scientific research while at the same time incorporating features of particular relevance to psychology, such as narrative and characterisation.     

Involvement with Local Television News Cognitive and Emotional Dimensions

This study considered involvement as audience activity, as an indication that audience members are participating in mass media content. On the basis of previous communication research, involvement is viewed as audience activity with both cognitive and affective dimensions. Cognitive involvement reflects attention to, recognition of, and elaboration on media content. Emotional involvement reflects internal feelings. The purpose of this study was to check the validity of this view of involvement in the context of local television news by (a) testing the relationship between the strength of news viewing motivation and involvement intensity, (b) testing the relationship between the type of news viewing motivation and involvement orientation, and (c) testing the relationship between cognitive and emotional involvement. Adult local news viewers (N = 305) completed pertinent questionnaires. Pearson and canonical correlation partly supported the proposed view of media involvement. Utilitarian viewing motivation was associated with higher cognitive involvement and feelings of anger while watching local news. Diversionary motivation was associated with feeling happy while watching news. There were links between cognitive and emotional involvement with news. The discussion focuses on the importance of involvement and motivation in media effects research.     

Fear Associated With September 11 Television Coverage in Oklahoma City Bombing Survivors

This study explored television viewing of the September 11 attacks in 99 survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing and examined the relationships of event-related television viewing with concerns about safety and danger in survivors with and without bombing-related posttraumatic stress disorder. The number of hours of viewing September 11 television coverage was related to worry about personal and family danger and to increased checking on loved ones but not to September 11–related posttraumatic responses. Some bombing survivors discontinued September 11 media contact due to fear. The findings suggest the importance of monitoring television viewing in survivors of prior incidents.     

Need for Cognition and Choice Framing Effects

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that framing biases in decision making would affect more strongly individuals with relatively low levels of need for cognition (NC). Participants were classified as high or low NC based on responses to a standard scale and subsequently were exposed to one of two framings of a choice problem. Different choice problems were used in each experiment, modeled after those developed by Kahneman and Tversky. Experiment 1 employed a monetary task and Experiment 2 a medical decision-making task. Consistent with expectations, framing effects on choice were observed in both experiments, but only for low NC participants. High NC participants were unaffected by problem framing, showing that they were less susceptible to attempts to alter their frame of reference.     

Framing Effects: Dynamics and Task Domains

The author examines the mechanisms and dynamics of framing effects in risky choices across three distinct task domains (i.e., life–death, public property, and personal money). The choice outcomes of the problems presented in each of the three task domains had a binary structure of a sure thing vs a gamble of equal expected value; the outcomes differed in their framing conditions and the expected values, raging from 6000, 600, 60, to 6, numerically. It was hypothesized that subjects would become more risk seeking, if the sure outcome was below their aspiration level (the minimum requirement). As predicted, more subjects preferred the gamble when facing the life–death choice problems than facing the counterpart problems presented in the other two task domains. Subjects’ risk preference varied categorically along the group size dimension in the life–death domain but changed more linearly over the expected value dimension in the monetary domain. Framing effects were observed in 7 of 13 pairs of problems, showing a positive frame–risk aversion and negative frame–risk seeking relationship. In addition, two types of framing effects were theoretically defined and empirically identified. Abidirectional framing effectinvolves a reversal in risk preference, and occurs when a decision maker's risk preference is ambiguous or weak. Four bidirectional effects were observed; in each case a majority of subjects preferred the sure outcome under a positive frame but the gamble under a negative frame. In contrast, aunidirectional framing effectrefers to a preference shift due to the framing of choice outcomes: A majority of subjects preferred one choice outcome (either the sure thing or the gamble) under both framing conditions, with positive frame augmented the preference for the sure thing and negative frame augmented the preference for the gamble. These findings revealed some dynamic regularities of framing effects and posed implications for developing predictive and testable models of human decision making.     

Risk-Taking,Framing Effects,and Affect

This paper examines the influence of affect′s two primary dimensions, Pleasantness and Arousal, on risk-taking behaviors. In Study 1, higher levels of Arousal led subjects to pay less for insurance to protect themselves from potential losses. In Study 2, a between-subjects design examined willingness-to-pay for statistically equivalent lotteries and insurance. Higher Arousal led to higher risk-seeking expressed as higher willingness-to-pay for lotteries but lower willingness-to-pay for insurance. Higher Negative Affectivity (i.e., Unpleasantness and high Arousal) led to higher willingness-to-pay for insurance for possible losses of substantial value. Also, higher Calmness (i.e., Pleasantness and low Arousal) led to greater willingness-to-pay for lotteries. The results are interpreted in terms of two mechanisms: (i) congruency between Pleasantness and selected risk-taking decision strategy and (ii) Arousal-induced restriction in attentional capacity.     

Cognitive Style,Creativity Framing and Effects

This study investigates how individuals with different cognitive styles respond to choices involving framing effects. The results suggest that cognitive style as defined by Kirton (1976) is far more complex than previous studies indicate. Kirton characterises “Innovators” as rule breakers and “Adaptors” as conformists. The most important finding of this study is that in some decision contexts, Innovators and Adaptors exhibit similar preferences for rule breaking. In other situations, Adaptors actually prefer non‐conformity in comparison to Innovators. The study analysed responses from 146 university students and professional managers to 25 binary choices involving investment decisions, job choices and travel routes. The questions were constructed to reveal significant reversals of preference related to risk and attribute based framing effects. Additionally, some questions were constructed to reveal preferences for certain operational aspects of creativity. Overall, the results suggest that framing effects may provide an important tool for unlocking individual creativity in organisations, as long as cognitive style and context are carefully taken into account.