THE PREFERENCE FOR GAIN FRAMES IN CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING

The way that choices are framed or presented to consumers may exert a significant impact on preferences. With few exceptions, past experiments have always framed choices for decision makers. Six studies examined how people themselves frame ambiguous events. Using a scenario format, Study 1 demonstrated that subjects interpreted paying back a loan as a gain rather than as a loss. Study 2 replicated this finding with a methodology where subjects actually received a loan of real money from the experimenter. Study 3 showed that the tendency to view paying back a loan as a gain was greater when the loan was for oneself rather than another person. Study 4 replicated the initial finding using a choice dilemma similar to those used by Tversky and Kahneman (1981). Studies 5 and 6 showed that people view selling a possession as a gain. However, study 5 also showed that buyers do not display this tendency. These data suggest that the tendency to frame actions as gains will be moderated by role expectations and the bias to view one's actions in a positive light.