Framing Foreign Policy Alternatives in the Inner Circle: President Carter, His Advisors, and the Struggle for the Arms Control Agenda

This article examines strategic framing efforts within the president's inner circle of foreign policy advisors. The comparative case study method is used to describe and explain the framing process involved in President Jimmy Carter's arms control decisions with respect to the Soviet Union. Carter's two central foreign policy advisors, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, portrayed the Soviets in very different terms. The premise underlying this study is that advisors attempt to frame their policy preferences favorably in order to influence the group process and the president's policy choice. Advisors do so by playing up the positive aspects of an option and downplaying any negative aspects. Three components of the framing process are explored: historical/cultural symbolism, personal beliefs and values, and political cost assessments.     

Perceived social context and risk preference: A re-examination of framing effects in a life-death decision problem

This study examines the effects of perceived group context on subjects risk attitudes and their sensitivity to the framing of choice outcomes in a ‘life-death’ decision problem. It seeks to uncover the psychological mechanisms underlying decision-making biases by systematically manipulating the decision context in which the ‘life-death’ problem was described. The study revealed that subjects risk preferences varied as a function of the experimental manipulations. Previously observed reversals in preferences (framing effects) appeared in large-group contexts and disappeared in small-group and family contexts. When considering the fate of small groups, subjects unambiguously favored the probabilistic outcome, no matter how the ‘life-death’ decision problem was framed. The empirical data obtained from the present study suggest that human choice patterns are behaviorally distinguishable across large-group, small-group, and family social contexts.     

道德判断中的框架效应:一个新的视角

道德领域亦存在框架效应,但有关这类偏差的研究仍然存在不足。研究以600名大学生为对象,以亚洲疾病和工厂风波两类经典情境为实验情境,设置正面和负面两类属性框架,以研究道德判断的框架效应。结果发现,在面临道德判断情境时,在正面框架下被试倾向于选择确定性方案,而在负面框架下被试倾向于选择风险性方案; 在正面框架下被试倾向于评价风险性方案更违背道德,在负面框架下则认为确定性方案更违背道德; 被试对情境中人物选择确定性或风险性方案道德之可谴责性评价与确定性或风险性方案本身之道德违背性评价的判断并不一致:在正面框架下,若情境中人物选择风险性方案,被试认为其行为更应受到谴责; 但在负面框架下,被试对情境中人物选择确定性方案和风险性方案在道德上应受谴责性的评价并无显著差异。研究还发现道德判断框架效应存在性别差异,负面框架下女生更为风险寻求。     

Does message framing affect changes in behavioural intentions in people with psoriasis? A randomized exploratory study examining health risk communication

Message framing is important in health communication research to encourage behaviour change. Psoriasis, a long-term inflammatory skin condition, has additional comorbidities including high levels of anxiety and cardiovascular disease (CVD), making message framing particularly important. This experimental study aimed to: (1) identify whether health messages about psoriasis presented as either gain- or loss-framed were more effective for prompting changes in behavioural intentions (BI), (2) examine whether BI were driven by a desire to improve psoriasis or reduce CVD risk; (3) examine emotional reactions to message frame; and (4) examine predictors of BI. A two by two experiment examined the effects on BI of message frame (loss vs. gain) and message focus (psoriasis symptom reduction vs. CVD risk reduction). Participants with psoriasis (n = 217) were randomly allocated to one of four evidence-based health messages related to either smoking, alcohol, diet or physical activity, using an online questionnaire. BI was the primary outcome. Analysis of variance tests and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. A significant frame by focus interaction was found for BI to reduce alcohol intake (p = .023); loss-framed messages were more effective for CVD risk reduction information, whilst gain-framed messages were more effective for psoriasis symptom reduction information. Message framing effects were not found for BI for increased physical activity and improving diet. High CVD risk was a significant predictor of increased BI for both alcohol reduction (β = .290, p < .01) and increased physical activity (β = ?.231, p < .001). Message framing may be an important factor to consider depending on the health benefit emphasised (disease symptom reduction or CVD risk reduction) and patient-stated priorities. Condition-specific health messages in psoriasis populations may increase the likelihood of message effectiveness for alcohol reduction.     

The Effects of Framing, Reflection, Probability, and Payoff on Risk Preference in Choice Tasks

A meta-analysis of Asian-disease-like studies is presented to identify the factors which determine risk preference. First the confoundings between probability levels, payoffs, and framing conditions are clarified in a task analysis. Then the role of framing, reflection, probability, type, and size of payoff is evaluated in a meta-analysis. It is shown that bidirectional framing effects exist for gains and for losses. Presenting outcomes as gains tends to induce risk aversion, while presenting outcomes as losses tends to induce risk seeking. Risk preference is also shown to depend on the size of the payoffs, on the probability levels, and on the type of good at stake (money/property vs human lives). In general, higher payoffs lead to increasing risk aversion. Higher probabilities lead to increasing risk aversion for gains and to increasing risk seeking for losses. These findings are confirmed by a subsequent empirical test. Shortcomings of existing formal theories, such as prospect theory, cumulative prospect theory, venture theory, and Markowitz's utility theory, are identified. It is shown that it is not probabilities or payoffs, but the framing condition, which explains most variance. These findings are interpreted as showing that no linear combination of formally relevant predictors is sufficient to capture the essence of the framing phenomenon.     

Parent-like spokesperson for campaigning an anti-plastic straw movement to young adults: Is it effective?

Parental communication is still relatively meaningful in Asian families with hierarchical, vertical, and authoritative relationships. Meanwhile, children's pro-environmental behaviour in emerging Asian nations tends to be passive, leading to a need for intervention from the closest parties, often the parent, whose familial role in green communication has not been examined. This study uses social learning theory to examine the interplay of parent-like spokespeople and message appeals in affecting young adults' cognitive and emotional responses, which is expected to influence the ad liking and believability of green advertisements and switching intention to green products, such as eco-friendly straws. A laboratory experiment was conducted with 240 subjects. The results showed that the frame of a father-like figure conveying a hope appeal generated the greatest enthusiasm and argument quality for young adults. Mother-like figures speaking a fearful message frame were the best generator for young adults' anger and threat appraisal. Ad liking was significantly impacted only by a mother-like spokesperson who spoke a fearful appeal mediated by anger and a father-like spokesperson who delivered a hope appeal mediated by argument quality. Young adults' willingness to switch to eco-friendly straws was indirectly influenced by the interaction effect of a mother-like spokesperson and fear appeal type mediated by ad believability.     

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.     

Loneliness and social monitoring: A conceptual replication of Knowles et al.

Contrary to the claim that loneliness routinely impairs the decoding of social cues such as emotion displays, Knowles, Lucas, Baumeister, and Gardner (2015) proposed that lonely adults “choke under pressure,” experiencing impairments only when social monitoring is framed as diagnostic of general social skill. In four experiments, Knowles et al. showed that lonely individuals performed worse than nonlonely individuals at decoding social cues when the decoding task was framed as a test of social aptitude, but not when it was framed as a test of academic aptitude. The studies were small (N's ranging from 78 to 203), and all employed a convenience sample of mostly female undergraduate students, impairing both statistical power and external validity. In addition, the lack of a true control group precluded the studies from establishing whether loneliness inhibits social monitoring ability if no frame is offered. This study conceptually replicates the central hypothesis of Knowles et al. using a sample of adults that is substantially larger and more diverse demographically and geographically, and using a true control group in addition to the comparison group. Results revealed a significant main effect of loneliness on social monitoring ability but did not replicate the choking under pressure phenomenon.     

网络募捐中求助者的面部表情对捐助意愿的影响：有中介的调节模型

基于框架效应和共情–助人行为假说,以82名大学生为被试,通过实验探讨了网络募捐中求助者的面部表情对捐助意愿的影响,并考察了目标框架的调节作用以及共情的中介作用。结果表明：目标框架调节了求助者的面部表情对捐助者的共情和捐助意愿的影响。在积极框架下,消极面部表情对捐助者的共情和捐助意愿的积极影响显著高于积极面部表情;而在消极框架下,两种面部表情对捐助者的共情和捐助意愿的影响均无显著差异。研究还发现了有中介的调节作用模型,共情在求助者的面部表情对捐助意愿的影响中发挥中介作用,而目标框架是有中介的调节变量。     

The Effects of Regulatory Fit between Explanation Framing and Applicants’ Regulatory Foci on Applicant Reaction

Abstract

Drawing from regulatory fit theory and the literature on persuasion, the current study is the first to explore whether the fit between explanation framing and applicants’ regulatory foci could enhance applicant reaction. We hypothesized that a positively framed explanation fits with applicants’ promotion foci and that a negatively framed explanation fits with applicants’ prevention foci. Three studies were conducted in which participants with different regulatory foci rated their perceived procedural fairness and organizational attractiveness after reading differently framed recruitment advertisements, rejection letters, and job offer letters. The results supported our hypothesis by showing significant interactions between explanation framing and participants’ regulatory foci on procedural fairness and organizational attractiveness perception in the contexts of recruitment advertising and rejection letters. In these contexts, compared with receiving a negatively framed explanation, promotion-focused recipients reported higher levels of perceived fairness and organizational attractiveness after receiving a positively framed explanation, and promotion-focused recipients’ fairness and attractiveness perceptions were higher than prevention-focused recipients’, after receiving a positively framed explanation. Moreover, perceived procedural fairness mediated the relationship between regulatory fit and perceived organizational attractiveness. However, regulatory fit effects were not found in the context of job offer letters.