Research Tips

Positive and Negative Framing

Would you make an investment if you knew that there was a 20% chance that you would lose money? How about if there was an 80% chance that you would break even or make money? It may seem like the answers to these questions should be identical since the likelihood of making or losing money isn’t different — only the way it is expressed is — but extensive research across a wide variety of contexts has demonstrated systematic differences in the way people respond to questions like this. Specifically, people tend to express greater willingness to do things when they are framed in terms of gains (e.g., an 80% chance of making money or breaking even) rather than losses (e.g., a 20% chance of losing money). This difference needs to be considered when designing research questions and interpreting results in order for research findings not to be misleading.