Framing effects: An analytic-holistic perspective

Under what conditions, why, and for whom are framing effects most likely? In this paper, we build on the existing literature (e.g., Chaiken, 1987; Epstein, Lipson, Holstein, & Huh, 1992; Evans & Over, 1996; Fiske & Neuberg, 1990; Payne, Bettman, & Johnson, 1988; Simon, 1956; Sloman, 1996; Stanovich & West, 2000), in providing answers to these questions. We hypothesized that individuals who engage a decision task with an analytic/systematic versus holistic/heuristic processing style are especially insensitive to the influence of framing effects. Therefore, we predicted that the way in which a decision is framed should have a relatively weak influence on those who were either induced (Experiment 1) or predisposed (Experiment 2) to adopt a predominantly analytic/systematic versus holistic/heuristic processing style. The results of both experiments supported this position.