Information framing effects in social and personal decisions

Abstract Information framing effects are defined when the manner in which stimuli are labeled or framed affects their evaluation. Two experiments are reported in which level of personal involvement, as well as information frame, is manipulated. In Experiment 1 the incidence of cheating was rated higher by subjects receiving the statement, “65% of the students had cheated during their college career” than by subjects receiving the statement “35% of the students had never cheated.” However, subjects were not influenced by these statements when expressing the likelihood of turning in a cheater or changing their own answers on an exam. In Experiment 2 subjects who were told that a new medical treatment had a “50% success rate” rated the treatment as more effective and were more apt to recommend it to others, including members of their immediate family, than subjects who were told that the treatment had a “50% failure rate.” Results were discussed in terms of the robustness of the framing effect when external sources of information are necessary to an informed judgment. An “anchoring and adjustment” model was used to explain the observed framing effects.