This paper examines Tversky and Kahneman's well-known Asian disease framing problem (A. Tversky, D. Kahneman, Science 211 (1981) 453–458). I describe an experiment where respondents received a version of the disease problem using a survival format, a mortality format, or both formats. The results from the survival and mortality formats replicate Tversky and Kahneman's original experiment both in terms of statistical significance and, in contrast to some other studies, in terms of magnitude. I then argue that the “both format” condition constitutes an important and previously unused baseline for evaluating the strength of framing effects. This standard of comparison provides a way to evaluate the impact of a frame on unadulterated preferences – that is, preferences unaffected by a particular frame. The implications for future framing effect experiments are discussed. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting