Yan Sun

50% off or buy one get one free? Frame preference as a function of consumable nature in dairy products

Previous studies on how framing differentially affects consumer perceptions of value from equivalent deals indicate that perceptions of deal value from price-saving versus extra-product promotions are moderated by the stock-up characteristic of the category. In this study, the authors explored the relationship between stock-up characteristic and frame preference and the influence of the consumable nature of goods on frame preference. An experiment involving 223 student participants showed that consumable nature, but not stock-up characteristic, affected frame preference. The authors discuss the implications of this finding for the study of information framing and how it impacts consumer judgment and decision making.

Decreasing ventromedial prefrontal cortex deactivation in risky decision making after simulated microgravity: effects of −6° head-down tilt bed rest

Space is characterized by risk and uncertainty. As humans play an important role in long-duration space missions, the ability to make risky decisions effectively is important for astronauts who spend extended time periods in space. The present study used the Balloon Analog Risk Task to conduct both behavioral and fMRI experiments to evaluate the effects of simulated microgravity on individuals risk-taking behavior and the neural basis of the effect. The results showed that participants risk-taking behavior was not affected by bed rest. However, we found that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) showed less deactivation after bed rest and that the VMPFC activation in the active choice condition showed no significant difference between the win outcome and the loss outcome after bed rest, although its activation was significantly greater in the win outcome than in the loss outcome before bed rest. These results suggested that the participants showed a decreased level of value calculation after the bed rest. Our findings can contribute to a better understanding of the effect of microgravity on individual higher-level cognitive functioning.

The effect of risk on intertemporal choice

The strong similarities between intertemporal and risky choice raised the possibility that risk and time delay were psychologically interchangeable in the way they influence preference. Consistent with the single‐process view, several previous studies have indicated that introducing uncertainty to intertemporal choice could decrease the degree of discounting future rewards just as adding time delay to it. However, the opposite effect has been observed in other cases. The present study examined the role of risk in intertemporal choice using the choice titration procedure. The results of two experiments indicated that risk and time delay had opposite effects on the preference in intertemporal choices. That is, the external uncertainty increased the degree of discounting future, whereas the opposite is true for time delays. Thus, our results were unfriendly to the single‐process theory. In addition, the present study demonstrated the presence of an immediacy effect as well as a magnitude effect in intertemporal choice regardless of whether or not the reward is certain.

The effect of pseudo‐immediacy on intertemporal choices

An interesting phenomenon, which we dub the ‘pseudo‐immediacy effect’, was detected in intertemporal choices. The majority of our participants preferred the smaller but sooner (SS) outcome to the larger but later (LL) outcome when a pseudo‐immediacy reward was framed, but a higher proportion of participants preferred the LL outcome to the SS outcome when the pseudo‐immediate format was removed. Such a shift violated the invariance principle which requires that the preference order between options does not depend on the manner in which they are described. With reference to the pseudo‐certainty effect reported by Kahneman and Tversky in 1984, our findings typically support the notion that risk and delay are psychologically equivalent and that the same psychological process underlies risk and intertemporal choice.

Higher height, higher ability: judgment confidence as a function of spatial height perception.

Based on grounded cognition theories, the current study showed that judgments about ability were regulated by the subjects perceptions of their spatial height. In Experiment 1, we found that after seeing the ground from a higher rather than lower floor, people had higher expectations about their performance on a knowledge test and assigned themselves higher rank positions in a peer comparison evaluation. In Experiment 2, we examined the boundary conditions of the spatial height effects and showed that it could still occur even if we employed photos rather than actual building floors to manipulate the perceptions of spatial heights. In addition, Experiment 2 excluded processing style as an explanation for these observations. In Experiment 3, we investigated a potential mechanism for the spatial height effect by manipulating the scale direction in the questionnaire. Consequently, consistent with our representational dependence account, the effect of spatial heights on ability judgments was eliminated when the mental representation of ability was disturbed by a reverse physical representation. These results suggest that peoples judgments about their ability are correlated with their spatial perception.

Effect of 45-day simulated microgravity on the evaluation of orally reported emergencies

Accurate evaluation of emergencies is a critical concern in long-duration space flights. Accordingly, we studied the effect of 45 days of − 6° head-down bed rest – a model that simulates the conditions in microgravity environments – on the evaluation of orally reported emergencies. Sixteen male participants listened to corresponding emergency scenarios and assessed the severity of these situations eight times before, during and after bed rest. The results revealed a ‘ recency effect’: compared with emergency descriptions in the order of serious to mild, those framed in the reverse order were judged to be more serious. However, the severity ratings did not vary with time spent in the simulated microgravity environment. These findings are similar to those observed in a regular environment on Earth, indicating that the design principles of information presentation for situations on Earth may also be extended to designs intended for outer space. Practitioner Summary: A recency effect was found in the evaluation of orally reported emergencies under simulated microgravity conditions. The design principles of information presentation for situations on Earth may also be extended to designs intended for outer space.

Reexamining the role of the description of problem texts in the disjunction effect

M. Bagassi and L. Macchi (2006) demonstrated that through a pragmatic analysis and consequent reformulation of a task, the certainty vs. uncertainty condition is not a crucial factor to the disjunction effect. In addition, C. Lambdin and C. Burdsal (2007) argued that, given the defining characteristics of a disjunction effect, a between-subjects design does not allow for the conditions necessary for a disjunction effect to occur. In the present study, the authors reexamined the role of texts description in the disjunction effect using a within-subject experimental design rather than a between-subjects design across 3 conditions. The results support M. Bagassi and L. Macchis conclusion, regardless of whether the information presentation was transparent or not.

Perceived physical experiences and mental representations.

In a recent paper, Stamps (2011a) reported findings on how two environmental properties, namely, boundary height and horizontal area within a boundary, influence impressions of enclosure. He found that the boundary height had a greater influence on impressions of enclosure than the horizontal area within a boundary. Enclosure correlated at 0.85 with boundary height and at −0.60 with horizontal area. This note suggests that environmental features are related not only to a concrete experiential variable but also to mental representations of abstract concepts.

Fear, anger, and risk preference reversals: An experimental study on a Chinese sample

Fear and anger are basic emotions of the same valence which differ in terms of their certainty and control dimensions according to the Appraisal Tendency Framework, a theory addressing the relationship between specific emotions, and judgments and choices. Past research based on the Appraisal Theory revealed contradictory results for risky choice decision-making. However, these conclusions were drawn from Western samples (e.g., North American). Considering potential cultural differences, the present study aims to investigate whether the Appraisal Tendency hypothesis yields the same results in a Chinese sample. Our first study explores how dispositional fear and anger influence risk preferences through a classic virtual “Asia Disease Problem” task and the second study investigates how induced fear and anger influence risk preferences through an incentive-compatible task. Consistent with previous research, our results reveal that induced fear and anger have differential effects on risky decisions: angry participants prefer the risk-seeking option, whereas fearful participants prefer a risk-averse option. However, we find no associations between dispositional fear (or anger) and risky decisions.

Graph-framing Effects in Decision Making

In contrast to the axiom of description invariance, researchers interested in decision framing effects are accumulating evidence that different representations of the same problem do not yield the same preference. Traditional research on framing effects has commonly utilized verbal scenarios. In contrast, the current study manipulated the graphical representation of options by framing the physical characters in figures and found that preferences could be affected even when the words and numbers of the problem were constant. Our evidence showed that such graph framing effects could be detected across different types of graphical displays and different question scenarios. Based on attribute substitution theory and an equate-to-differentiate approach, we proposed a two-process model of graph framing effects: The Graph- edited Equate-to-differentiate Model (GEM).