The influence of gain-loss framing and its interaction with political ideology on social distancing and mask wearing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of cases and over half a million deaths in the United States. While health experts urge citizens to adopt preventative measures such as social distancing and wearing a mask, these recommended behaviors are not always followed by the public. To find a way to promote preventative measures, the present study examined the role of gain-loss framing of COVID-19 related messages on social distancing and mask wearing compliance. Moreover, the study also tested potential moderating effects on framing with three individual characteristics: political ideology, subjective numeracy, and risk attitude. A sample of 375 U.S. adult residents were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Each participant read either a gain or loss-framed message related to practicing protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants also completed scales of preventative behaviors, risk attitude, subjective numeracy, political ideology, and other demographic variables. It was found that those who were more liberal, risk-averse and had greater subjective numeracy were more likely to wear a mask and/or follow social distancing. Furthermore, in the presence of demographic and psychological factors, the study found participants in the loss-framed condition than in the gain-framed condition were more likely to adopt both preventative measures, supporting the notion of loss aversion. Additionally, the framing effect was also moderated by political ideology on mask-wearing, with the effect being stronger in liberals than in conservatives. Collectively, the study implies message framing may be a useful means to promote preventative measures in the current pandemic.

A Study on Real Estate Purchase Decisions

This study examines the influence of joint information framing and personality traits on housing purchase decisions, specifically in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a between-subjects experimental design, we found that negative framing has a stronger impact on purchase decisions for optimistic participants compared with pessimistic ones. Additionally, high-price anchoring has a greater negative effect on purchase intention for pessimists, while low-price anchoring has a stronger positive effect for optimists. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the low-price real estate market has been less severely impacted by the pandemic than the high-price market. The real estate market seeks to minimize information asymmetry to achieve sustainable and healthy development. These results contribute to creating inclusive, safe, and sustainable cities.

Effects of risk message on loneliness and travel intention: roles of conflictive family atmosphere and risk propensity in the context of COVID-19 pandemic

This study examines the effects of risk message frames on tourists' post-pandemic travel intention via the meditation of loneliness and went further to investigate the roles of conflictive family atmosphere and risk propensity in moderating these effects. A situational experiment was conducted in China resulting 622 valid responses. The study found that respondents in risk attenuating frame had higher travel intention than those in risk amplifying frame;social loneliness partially mediated the effect of risk message on travel intention. Conflictive family atmosphere moderated the effects of risk message on social loneliness and travel intention. And risk propensity alleviated the negative impact of risk message on travel intention. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

COVID-19 stressor reduces risk taking: the role of trait interoception.

The Framing Effect (FE) demonstrated that the way two alternatives are displayed affects people's inclination to make a specific choice, showing a risk aversion when alternatives are displayed on positive frames and risk seeking in negative frames. Risk seeking in negative frames is closely linked to loss aversion. Moreover, classical research and the salience-of-losses hypothesis argues that stress may enhance the FE and loss aversion. Recent studies also suggest that the trait interoception and alexithymia could interact and moderate the framing susceptibility. However, experimental paradigms on stress could ignore variables such as threat perception. In this sense, COVID-19 pandemic has become a powerful real-life stressor in many countries. We aimed to study how real-life stressors influence decision-making under risk. A total of 97 participants were divided into a control (n = 48) and an experimental group (n = 49). The experimental group were exposed to a stressor manipulation, a 5 min COVID-19 lockdown documentary. Our results show that COVID-19-related stressors significantly decreased bet acceptance regardless of the frame, also reducing loss aversion. Moreover, interoception was a significant predictor of loss aversion under stress conditions. Our results do not support classical research on stress and FE.

The Individuals' Willingness to Get the Vaccine for COVID-19 during the Third Wave: A Study on Trust in Mainstream Information Sources, Attitudes and Framing Effect.

Different inner and external determinants might explain an individual's willingness to get the vaccine for COVID-19. The current study aims at evaluating the effects of trust in mainstream information sources on individuals' willingness to get the vaccine and the moderator role of the message framing. Six hundred and thirty-four participants (68.5% females and 31.5% males) were enrolled in an online survey. Participants filled out a questionnaire assessing: trust in mainstream information sources and vaccinal attitude (trust in vaccine benefit, worries over unforeseen future effects, concerns about commercial profiteering, and preference for natural immunity). In addition, participants were randomly exposed to one of four conditions of framing information about the vaccine (gain-probability; gain-frequency; loss-probability; loss-frequency). Results showed that trust in vaccine benefit (b = 9.90; 95% CI: 8.97, 11.73) and concerns about commercial profiteering (b = -4.70; 95% CI: -6.58, -2.81) had a significant effect on the intention to get the vaccine. Further, a significant interaction was observed between loss-gain and trust in vaccine benefit and between frequency-probability and concerns about commercial profiteering. Future vaccination campaigns should consider the individuals' concerns about vaccine benefit and economic profits to efficaciously deliver frequency-framed or probability-framed information.

The Importance of Project Description to Charitable Crowdfunding Success: The Mediating Role of Forwarding Times.

The COVID-19 outbreak has been a public health crisis of international concern, causing huge impact on people's lives. As an important part of social public crisis management, how to quickly and effectively raise resources to participate in emergency relief in the era of self-media is a common challenge faced by global charitable organizations. This article attempts to use empirical evidence from Tencent charitable crowdfunding platform, the largest charitable crowdfunding platform in China, to answer this question. We consider 205 COVID-19 charitable projects and 11,177,249 donors to assess the process by which non-profit organizations raise funds through the information about project descriptions. Based on the effects of information and emotional framing, we explore the effects of the readability (i.e., complexity and understandability) and negative tone of the project description on fundraising amount. We then investigate the mediating role of forwarding times, as affective response to the text might explain forwarding times, which in turn affects money raised by increasing the visibility of the campaign. On this basis, the moderating role of recipient's crisis involvement is tested during this process. The empirical results indicate that the complexity of the description will reduce the fundraising amount, while understandability and negative tone help to improve it. Furthermore, we found that forwarding times played an important mediating role in this process. Then the buffer effect of crisis involvement on the negative effect of complexity was validated, and its amplification on the positive effects of understandability was also verified.

The Influence of Trait Emotion and Spatial Distance on Risky Choice Under the Framework of Gain and Loss.

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are often faced with uncertain risky choice. Risky choice will be affected by different descriptions of the event's gain or loss framework, this phenomenon is known as the framing effect. With the continuous expansion and in-depth study of frame effects in the field of risky choice, researchers have found that the are quite different in different situations. People have different interpretations of the same event at different psychological distances, and will also be affected by their own emotions. Therefore, the current study examines the common influence of task frame, spatial distance, and trait emotion on risky choice through two studies. Study 1 used a 2 (framework: gain vs. loss) × 2 (trait sentiment: high vs. low) inter-subject design, and the dependent variable is the choice of the rescue plan for the classic "Asian disease" problem. The results revealed that trait anger did not predict individuals' risky choice preferences, and high trait anxiety led individuals to be more risk-averse. The framing effect exists in risky choice, and individuals prefer risk seeking in the loss frame. Study 2 used a 2 (spatial distance: distant vs. proximal) × 2 (framework: gain vs. loss) × 2 (trait sentiment: high vs. low) three-factor inter-subject design in which the dependent variable is the choice of rescue plan. The results indicate that the framing effect also exists in risky choice, and individuals prefer risk seeking in a loss frame. High trait anxiety lead individuals to be more risk-averse, while trait anger has no significant predictive effect on risk preference. Distant spatial distance lead individuals to increase their preference for risk-seeking under the gain frame, which leads to the disappearance of the framing effect. In conclusion, trait anxiety and spatial distance have a certain degree of influence on risky choice under the framework of gain and loss.

The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context.

The coronavirus pandemic has been recognized as a major threat to public health. Widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for achieving adequate immunization coverage to end the global pandemic. However, to date, there are still hesitant people, especially among the younger population groups. For this reason, it is essential to identify the psychological variables that may affect vaccination intention among these "at risk groups" and to select possible successful communication frames in order to increase vaccination rates. An online cross-sectional survey was carried out on 208 Italian citizens younger than 50 years old, to explore message framing effects on their intention to receive the vaccination and to understand the psychological factors influencing it. Results showed that depending on the goal (stimulate vaccination intention, vaccination trust, or vaccine attitude), not all the communication stimuli are equally effective on this target population. Furthermore, the study showed that sociodemographic variables do not help to explain the vaccination intention of the younger population groups, while the psychological variables have been found to have a stronger impact on such attitude. Trust and attitudes towards vaccines, concern about the pandemic and concern about infecting others have been found to be the most effective predictive variables of people vaccination intention. The study results underline the importance of understanding the psychological roots behind vaccine hesitancy to shape sensitization actions and vaccination campaigns targeting this population group.

Lay, professional, and artificial intelligence perspectives on risky medical decisions and COVID-19: How does the number of lives matter in clinical trials framed as gains versus losses?

Outcomes of clinical trials need to be communicated effectively to make decisions that save lives. We investigated whether framing can bias these decisions and if risk preferences shift depending on the number of patients. Hypothetical information about two medicines used in clinical trials having a sure or a risky outcome was presented in either a gain frame (people would be saved) or a loss frame (people would die). The number of patients who signed up for the clinical trials was manipulated in both frames in all the experiments. Using an unnamed disease, lay participants (experiment 1) and would-be medical professionals (experiment 2) were asked to choose which medicine they would have administered. For COVID-19, lay participants were asked which medicine should medical professionals (experiment 3), artificially intelligent software (experiment 4), and they themselves (experiment 5) favour to be administered. Broadly consistent with prospect theory, people were more risk-seeking in the loss frames than the gain frames. However, risk-aversion in gain frames was sensitive to the number of lives with risk-neutrality at low magnitudes and risk-aversion at high magnitudes. In the loss frame, participants were mostly risk-seeking. This pattern was consistent across laypersons and medical professionals, further extended to preferences for choices that medical professionals and artificial intelligence programmes should make in the context of COVID-19. These results underscore how medical decisions can be impacted by the number of lives at stake while revealing inconsistent risk preferences for clinical trials during a real pandemic.

Life and Death Decisions and COVID-19: Investigating and Modeling the Effect of Framing, Experience, and Context on Preference Reversals in the Asian Disease Problem.

Prior research in judgment and decision making (JDM) has investigated the effect of problem framing on human preferences. Furthermore, research in JDM documented the absence of such reversal of preferences when making decisions from experience. However, little is known about the effect of context on preferences under the combined influence of problem framing and problem format. Also, little is known about how cognitive models would account for human choices in different problem frames and types (general/specific) in the experience format. One of the primary objectives of this research is to investigate the presence of preference reversals under the influence of problem framing (gain/loss), problem format (experience/description), and problem type (general/specific). Another objective of this research is to develop cognitive models to account for human choices across different problem frames and types in the experience format. A total of 320 participants from India were randomly assigned to one of eight between-subjects conditions that differed in problem frame, format, and type. Results revealed preference reversals in the description condition; however, they were absent in the experience condition. Moreover, preference reversals were less pronounced in the general problem framing compared to the specific problem framing. Furthermore, specific problems influenced risk-seeking behavior among participants. We developed cognitive and heuristics models using instance-based learning theory and natural mean heuristic. Results reveal models' dependency on recent and frequent observations during information sampling. These experience-based cognitive models could help build artificial intelligence models with fewer preference reversals.

Nudges for COVID-19 voluntary vaccination: How to explain peer information?

Vaccination promotion is a crucial strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic; however, individual autonomy should also be respected. This study aimed to discover other-regarding information nudges that can reinforce people's intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine without impeding their autonomous decision-making. In March 2021, we conducted an online experiment with 1595 people living throughout Japan, and randomly assigned them either of one control group and three treatment groups that received messages differently describing peer information: control, comparison, influence-gain, and influence-loss. We compared each message's effects on vaccination intention, autonomous decision-making, and emotional response. We found that the influence-gain nudge was effective in increasing the number of older adults who newly decided to receive the vaccine. The comparison and influence-loss nudges further reinforced the intention of older adults who had already planned to receive it. However, the influence-loss nudge, which conveys similar information to the influence-gain nudge but with loss-framing, increased viewers' negative emotion. These messages had no promoting effect for young adults with lower vaccination intentions at baseline. Based on the findings, we propose governments should use different messages depending on their purposes and targets, such as comparison instead of influence-loss, to encourage voluntary vaccination behavior.

Information Framing Effect on Public's Intention to Receive the COVID-19 Vaccination in China.

The aims of the study were (1) to explore information framing effect on the public's intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccination and (2) to understand the key factors influencing the intention of COVID-19 vaccinations in China. An online questionnaire survey was conducted to explore the influence of demographic characteristics, individual awareness, social relationship, risk disclosure, perceived vaccine efficacy, and protection duration under the assumptions of information framing. The results showed that (1) the persuasion effect under loss frame was higher than that under gain frame (B = 0.616 vs. 0.552); (2) there was no significant difference between sex, age, income, occupation, educational background and residence for the participants' intention to be vaccinated; whether family members/friends were vaccinated had a strong correlation with their vaccination intention under the gain frame; (3) the higher the understanding of COVID-19 and the compliance with government COVID-19 prevention and control measures were, the higher the vaccination intention was; (4) risk disclosure had the greatest impact on people's COVID-19 vaccination intention; (5) perceived vaccine effectiveness and duration of protection had little effect on people's intention to receive vaccination. The influence of information framing on the intention of COVID-19 vaccination is different. The publicity of relevant health information should pay attention to the influence of information framing and contents on the behavior of public vaccination, so as to enhance public health awareness and promote the vaccination of the whole population.

The Dark Triad trait of psychopathy and message framing predict risky decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effects of framing on risky decision-making have been studied extensively in research using Kahneman and Tversky's (1981) hypothetical scenario about a contagious Asian disease. The COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to test how message framing affects risky decision-making when millions of real lives are at stake worldwide. In a sample of US adults (N = 294), we investigated the effects of message framing and personality (Dark Triad traits) in relation to risky decision-making during the COVID-19 crisis. We found that both gain- and loss-framing influenced risk choice in response to COVID-19. People were more risk-averse in the loss condition of the current study compared to the benchmark established by Tversky and Kahneman (1981). Among the Dark Triad traits, psychopathy emerged as the significant predictor of risk taking, suggesting that people who score high in psychopathy are more likely to gamble with other people's lives during the COVID-19 crisis. We suggest that both voters and pandemic-related public awareness campaigns should consider the possibility that decision-makers with psychopathic tendencies may take greater risks with other people's lives during a pandemic. In addition, the framing of public-health messages should be tailored to increase the chances of compliance with government restrictions.

Determinants of the Financial Contribution to the NHS: The Case of the COVID-19 Emergency in Italy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has quickly become an unprecedented challenge for many countries at a global level, requiring a significant amount of financial resources to support the National Healthcare System (NHS). In Italy, most of these resources came from the general public through tax payments and monetary donations. The present work aims to investigate the antecedents of citizens' willingness to financially support the NHS in a situation of public emergency such as the one related to the COVID-19 outbreak. It also aims to distinguish between the willingness to support the system through two different forms of financial contribution, tax payment and charitable giving. An empirical study was performed in the midst of the Italian public health emergency, while the country was reaching its contagion peak. Results showed that participants were more willing to give a financial contribution when it was framed as a one-off donation rather than as a one-off tax payment. Moreover, it was found that trust in money management was the most important factor in predicting the intention to make a financial contribution to the NHS, either through a tax payment or through charitable giving. The perceived risks with regard to the pandemic, in contrast, had no impact.