The underlying cause of the framing effect: A dual process approach

A switch of preference is often observed in identical questions, depending on how the choices are framed. This phenomenon is called the framing effect and it displays a violation of the rational choice theory and provides support for dual process theory accounts. Many dual process accounts indicate that; an emotional System 1 is the underlying cause of the framing effect however there are counter arguments that support the idea that; an analytic and working memory dependent System 2 is the underlying cause. Working memory dependence of System 2 is regarded as the main differentiator between the two systems. Thus in this research, a concurrent digit span backwards (DSB) task was given to suppress System 2, with risky choice framing type questions. It was hypothesised that, framing effect can be the result of an irrational emotional reaction to the positive and negative words that describe the choices thus the underlying cause might have been attributed to System 1. As a result, under a suppressed System 2 the amount of framing effects would increase. However findings showed that there was no significant effect of the memory load and counter to the expectation, in the memory load condition the number of framing effects were reduced. This result supports the argument that the underlying cause of the framing effect is System 2 , which means that context effects increase with analytical thinking. Thus this research signifies the importance of emotions and System 1 processes in leading to rational choices.