Can the conditions governing the framing effect be determined?

Abstract

The precise details of the design of the present study on the framing effect are based on possible tests of a choice model called the `equate-to-differentiate' theory (Li, 1994). This model posits that the mechanism governing human risky decision making is not one of maximizing some kind of expectation, but is rather some generalization of dominance detection. In the light of a representation system (with best possible and worst possible outcome dimensions) to describe options involved in the framing effect and the related reflection effect, the choice behavior is thus modeled as a process in which the individual equates offered differences between options on one dimension but differentiates another one-dimensional difference as the determinant of the final choice. The predictions derived from these theoretical developments are empirically tested by modifying some problems which have already been successfully used in the demonstration of some degree of framing effect. The overall results suggest that the framing effect can be produced if and only if framing or wording can change people's equate-to-differentiate strategy across different frame conditions, but not otherwise.PsycINFO classification: 2340; 23