Liu Dawn, Juanchich Marie, Sirota Miroslav
Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2020 Jul;208:103088. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103088. Epub 2020 Jun 1.
People find positive attribute frames (e.g., 75% lean) more persuasive than negative ones (e.g., 25% fat). In three pre-registered experiments, we tested whether this effect would be magnified by using verbal quantifiers instead of numerical ones (e.g., 'high % lean' vs. '75% lean'). This moderating effect of quantifier format was predicted based on previous empirical work and two non-exclusive accounts of framing effects. First, verbal quantifiers are presumed to be a more intuitive format than numerical quantifiers, so might predispose people more to judgement biases such as the framing effect. Second, verbal quantifiers draw a greater focus to the attributes they describe. This could provide a linguistic signal that the positive frame is better than the negative one. In three experiments, we manipulated the attribute frame (positive or negative) and the quantifier format (verbal or numerical) between-subjects, and quantity pairs (e.g., 5% fat and 95% lean or 25% fat and 75% lean) within-subjects. We also tested if participants focused more on the attributes in the frame, by measuring whether participants selected causal sentence completions about the beef that focused on why it had fat meat or lean meat. Results showed a robust framing effect, which was partially mediated by the focus of the sentence completions. However, the verbal format did not increase the magnitude of the framing effect. These results suggest that a focus on the attribute contributes to the framing effect, but contrary to past work, this focus is not different between verbal and numerical quantifiers.
人们发现积极属性框架（例如，75%瘦）比消极属性框架（例如，25%胖）更具说服力。在三项预先注册的实验中，我们测试了使用语言量词而非数字量词（例如，“高%瘦”与“75%瘦”）是否会放大这种效应。基于先前的实证研究以及对框架效应的两种非排他性解释，预测了量词格式的这种调节作用。首先，语言量词被认为比数字量词是一种更直观的格式，因此可能使人们更容易产生诸如框架效应之类的判断偏差。其次，语言量词更能吸引人们对其所描述属性的关注。这可能会提供一种语言信号，表明积极框架比消极框架更好。在三项实验中，我们在被试间操纵属性框架（积极或消极）和量词格式（语言或数字），并在被试内操纵数量对（例如，5%胖和95%瘦或25%胖和75%瘦）。我们还通过测量参与者是否选择关于牛肉的因果句子补全来测试参与者是否更关注框架中的属性，这些补全句子聚焦于牛肉为何有肥肉或瘦肉。结果显示出强大的框架效应，这一效应部分由句子补全的关注点所介导。然而，语言格式并未增加框架效应的强度。这些结果表明，对属性的关注促成了框架效应，但与过去的研究相反，这种关注在语言量词和数字量词之间并无差异。
