One of the main challenges in modelling spatial choices is the complexity resulting from the availability of multiple alternatives at different geographical scales. This study aims to test geographical framing and substitution effects in stated choice experiments by first increasing and subsequently reducing the geographical scale and associated set of choice alternatives in the experiment. Geo...

Contextual framing in physics problems has been shown to generally affect student performance on assessments. This study seeks to identify some of the main influences of this effect, and to characterize how contextual framing may vary within a classroom. Students in summer introductory physics courses (algebra based and calculus based) are administered surveys that assess performance on problem...

BACKGROUND Patients are often confronted with diverse medical decisions. Often lacking relevant medical knowledge, patients fail to independently make medical decisions and instead generally rely on the advice of doctors. OBJECTIVE This study investigated the characteristics of and differences in doctor-patient medical decision making on the basis of construal level theory. METHODS A total ...

The perceived slant of a surface relative to the frontal plane can be reduced when the surface is viewed through a frame between the observer and the surface. Aspects of this framing effect were investigated in three experiments in which observers judged the orientations-in-depth of rectangular and trapezoidal surfaces which were matched for pictorial depth. In experiments 1 and 2, viewing was ...

Although trait anxiety has been associated with risk decision making, whether it is related to risk per se or to the feeling of the risk, as well as the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms, remains unclear. Using a decision-making task with a manipulation of frame (i.e., written description of options as a potential gain or loss) and functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the n...

OBJECTIVES The present study explored whether the framing effect could be reduced in older and younger adults using techniques that influenced the accessibility of information relevant to the decision-making processing. Accessibility was manipulated indirectly in Experiment 1 by having participants engage in concurrent tasks, and directly in Experiment 2, through an instructions manipulation th...

Previous research suggests that participants may be susceptible to confirmation bias after making decisions in moral dilemmas. We manipulated the type of moral dilemmas (personal or impersonal) and the framing of the question prompting participants to respond (emphasizing saving five people or sacrificing one person). The actors in the dilemmas were represented by a series of silhouettes. Eye t...

Individual differences on a variety of framing and conjunction problems were examined in light of Slovic and Tversky’s (1974) understanding/acceptance principle—that more reflective and skilled reasoners are more likely to affirm the axioms that define normative reasoning and to endorse the task construals of informed experts. The predictions derived from the principle were confirmed for the mu...

Research has shown that framing messages in terms of benefits or detriments can have a substantial influence on intended behavior. For prevention behaviors, positively framed messages have been found to elicit stronger behavioral intentions than negatively framed messages. Research also seems to indicate that certain contextual features contribute to the persuasiveness of a message. In the pres...

Public opinion often depends on how elites choose to frame issues. For example, citizens’ opinions about a Ku Klux Klan rally may depend on whether elites frame the event as a free-speech issue or a public safety issue. Past research has focused largely on documenting the size of framing effects in uncontested settings. By contrast, there has been little research on framing in competitive envir...