Influence of elaboration on the framing of decision

Two experimental studies were conducted to examine the influence of elaboration on the framing of a medical decision. Subjects (N = 344) were undergraduate students randomly assigned to one cell of a 2 × 2 design (high- and low-elaboration conditions; positive and negative decision frame versions). In the low-elaboration condition, a framing effect (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981) was observed: Most of the subjects chose the riskless option when decision options were phrased positively in terms of gains, whereas most chose the risky option when options were phrased negatively in terms of losses. However, in the high-elaboration condition, the framing effect was not observed.