Impact of self-framing on decision making: Timing matters

Our aim was to extend the understanding of self-framing. Our focus was on the impact of self-framing on immediate and delayed decision making. Using cluster sampling, we recruited 350 university undergraduates who completed a self-framing measure adapted from the classic Asia disease problem scenario. The participants were randomly assigned to 2 groups: immediate decision making and delayed decision making. The results indicated that self-framing could influence participants’ decisions. In the immediate decision-making group, when the sure option was described (hedonic tone) more positively than the risk involved, the participants preferred the sure option. However, in the delayed decision-making group, self-framing had no significant impact on the decision made. The results showed that both timing (immediate decision or delayed decision) and self-framing had an impact on decision making, implying that immediate decision and delayed decision may have different cognitive mechanisms.