Revisiting attribute framing: The impact of number roundedness on framing

Gaurav Jain, Gary J. Gaeth, Dhananjay Nayakankuppam and Irwin P. Levin

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2020, vol. 161, issue C, 109-119

Abstract: We compare the impact of round and non-round numbers used in a communication message on consumers’ evaluations and judgments towards the associated target entity. We find that the use of non-round numbers, in contrast to round numbers, in a message frame results in increased attention to numerical values, which further leads to a comparison of the associated measures with ideal reference points. This leads to an increased framing effect in the non-round numbers condition compared to the round numbers condition. Interestingly, this also negatively affects consumers’ overall evaluations of the target entity. We demonstrate that such a decreased positivity in attitudes when using non-round numbers is more pronounced in negatively expressed frames. We explain this using an ‘attention shift-comparison’ process. Additionally, using multiple methodologies, we provide elaborated support for the attention-association based reasoning for framing effects in general and thus add to the literature on processes underlying framing effects. This extends the original valence-shift based account originally proposed by Levin and Gaeth (1988) and provides an avenue for future research on attention-association based framing effects.

Keywords: Number-roundedness; Granularity; Attribute-framing; Attention; Eye-tracking; Valence-shift; Valence-association (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:161:y:2020:i:c:p:109-119

DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.04.006

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