Reacting to perceived high- and low-risk win-lose opportunities in a risk decision-making task: Is it framing or affect or both?

Affect research has suggested that in high-risk situations, a positive mood often results in an enhanced sensitivity to losses, leading to strong risk-averse behavior relative to neutral or negative mood, but when a situation is seen as being low risk a reversal occurs and positive affect will often result in more risk-seeking behavior It was hypothesized that the simple "framing" of a gambling task to emphasize either potential gains or potential losses could act as an affect inducer and would produce similar results. In Experiment I the effects of an induced positive ol negative affective state on risk-taking behavior in a gambling task were examined. Results replicated the risk-averse/risk-seeking reversal phenomenon described above. In Experiment 2 the affect conditions were replaced with a simple Winning vs. Losing framing manipulation where an instructional emphasis was placed either on accumulating points or avoiding the loss of points. Results demonstrated that a reversal pattern in risk taking like that found in Experiment I for affect could also be obtained via this simple framing manipulation An affective-cognitive model of pre-choice framing and a theoretical link between the effects of framing and the effects of mood manipulation based on mood management theory are presented and discussed.