Four experiments on framing effects were conducted:
“Abstract, concrete & social framing of the public good game” with Daniele Nosenzo & Chris Starmer
“Explaining the behavioural differences in public good maintenance and provision” with Simon Gächter, John Maule & Chris Starmer
“Framing effects on influenza vaccination decisions: A field experiment in a research hospital in Turkey” with Burcu Isler, Orestis Kopsacheilis & Eamonn Ferguson
“A framed ultimatum game to study in/out group bias” with Ori Weisel
In addition, the action provided opportunities to network, culminating in the following three experimental projects:
“Explaining the economics and psychology of dishonesty via identification at the individual level” with Simon Gächter
“Honesty, peer-effects and openness to social influence” with Simon Gächter
“The description – experience gap in social context” with Orestis Kopsacheilis & Dennie van Dolder
Finally, the action made possible the following replication project, designed as a preparatory experiment:
“Is intuition really cooperative? Improved tests support the social heuristics hypothesis” with John Maule & Chris Starmer
The five experimental projects conducted towards the fellowship goal have provided significant insights into the workings of framing effects. Overall, these projects indicate that framing effects may work via changes in social norm perceptions, a result beyond the state of the art. Likewise, contrary to expectations based on the literature, and especially in real-life contexts where people are sensitive to risks, frames focusing on other-regarding attitudes may not enhance cooperative behaviour as compared to frames that make self-regard salient. In addition, our research confirms that cooperation is weaker in situations of public good maintenance (e.g. antibiotic consumption) than it is for public good provision (e.g. charity contributions for cancer research) due to weakness of reciprocal behaviour in the former. Importantly, in one of these projects, we have provided the first independent experimental evidence that intuitive decisions are indeed more cooperative, as recently hypothesized yet widely contested. The result has been presented in various conferences and is currently under review for publication.
The fellowship provided immense opportunities for training, networking, research and dissemination. During the fellowship period, the researcher completed the design and implementation phases of five projects towards the fellowship goal of understanding framing effects. The design and data collection of three additional experimental projects were finished during this period, which were a result of the networking and dissemination activities pursued during this period. The eight separate experimental projects, considerably more than the three projects initially proposed, are conducted in collaboration with nine different scholars many of whom are leaders in their fields, and they attest to the successful use of the fellowship resources towards and beyond the fellowship objectives.
