Peng Huamao, Xia Shiyong, Ruan Fanglin, Pu Bingyan
Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2016 Nov 7;7:1736. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01736. eCollection 2016.
Option framing effect is the phenomena that participants often accept more options when they are asked to delete undesired options from a full model (subtractive framing) than they do when they are instructed to add desired options to a base model (additive framing). Whether the same effect exists in different age groups is less well known. To explore the roles of age and purchase motivations on the option framing effect for automobiles purchases, this study adopted a 3 (age group: younger, middle-aged, vs. older) × 2 (option framing: additive vs. subtractive) × 2 (focus condition: information vs. emotion) mixed design. To manipulate purchase motivations, participants in the three age groups were instructed to focus on the ratio of utility and price of options (information-focus) or the extent of pleasure induced by the options (emotion-focus) when they made purchase decisions in two framing conditions. The results revealed similar option framing effect across all age groups in the information-focus condition regarding the total price paid for accepted options. In contrast, the framing effect was not found in the emotion-focus condition. In addition, older adults accepted more options and an overall higher price than younger and middle-aged adults in both focus conditions. This difference was more obvious in the emotion-focus condition than in the information-focus condition. Moreover, both the number of accepted options and the total accepted price of the younger group in the information-focus condition were higher than those in the emotion-focus condition, whereas the older and middle-aged groups accepted same number of options and price between two focus conditions. These results imply that purchase motivation is a moderator of the option framing effect and age characteristics linked with motivations must be considered in sales.
选项框架效应是指，当参与者被要求从一个完整模型中删除不想要的选项（减法框架）时，他们通常会接受比被指示向基础模型中添加想要的选项（加法框架）时更多的选项。不同年龄组是否存在相同的效应则鲜为人知。为了探究年龄和购买动机对汽车购买中选项框架效应的作用，本研究采用了3（年龄组：年轻、中年、老年）×2（选项框架：加法与减法）×2（聚焦条件：信息与情感）的混合设计。为了操纵购买动机，在两种框架条件下做出购买决策时，三个年龄组的参与者被指示关注选项的效用与价格之比（信息聚焦）或选项所带来的愉悦程度（情感聚焦）。结果显示，在信息聚焦条件下，所有年龄组在接受选项所支付的总价方面都存在类似的选项框架效应。相比之下，在情感聚焦条件下未发现框架效应。此外，在两种聚焦条件下，老年人比年轻人和中年人接受了更多的选项，总价也更高。这种差异在情感聚焦条件下比在信息聚焦条件下更明显。而且，在信息聚焦条件下，年轻组接受的选项数量和总接受价格均高于情感聚焦条件下的，而老年组和中年组在两种聚焦条件下接受的选项数量和价格相同。这些结果表明，购买动机是选项框架效应的调节变量，在销售中必须考虑与动机相关的年龄特征。
