Current Study (Present Study/Purpose)

The purpose of the present study is to examine two biases (the framing effect & hindsight bias) by using one set of Tversky and Kahneman’s (1981) framing questions and one set of Slovic’s and Fischhoff’s (1977) foresight-hindsight questions. We also want to determine the relationship between these two biasing effects and to find out whether people who are susceptible to the framing effect are also susceptible to the hindsight bias. In line with Tversky and Kahneman, regarding the framing effect, it is predicted that the majority of the participants will be influenced by the different frames (i.e., positive vs. negative) presented to them. Specifically, we predict that positive frames will prevent people form risking what they were certain to gain; while negative frames will lead to people risk-taking what they seem to perceive as a sure loss. In addition, it is also predicted that scores concerning people’s predictions of an approach outcome will be higher in the hindsight condition than in the foresight condition.