Reasons for Framing Effects

The term "framing effect" refers to the finding that subjects often respond differently to different descriptions of the same problem. An important question about framing effects is whether subjects can recognize the equivalence of the two problems if asked to directly compare them. In two experiments, subjects were first presented with framing problems and then were asked to directly compare the two versions and state whether they thought these should be treated the same. In Experiment 1, subjects gave brief justifications for their answers. They often provided sensible justifications for why the two situations should be treated differently. Experiment 2 showed that different types of framing effects (e.g., loss/gain, sunk cost) varied with respect to whether subjects agreed that the two versions should be treated the same. These results have implications for both normative and descriptive models of decision making.