title: Does ambiguity aversion influence the framing effect during decision making?
abstract: Decision-makers present a systematic tendency to avoid ambiguous options for which the level of risk is unknown. This ambiguity aversion is one of the most striking decision-making biases. Given that human choices strongly depend on the options' presentation, the purpose of the present study was to examine whether ambiguity aversion influences the framing effect during decision making. We designed a new financial decision-making task involving the manipulation of both frame and uncertainty levels. Thirty-seven participants had to choose between a sure option and a gamble depicting either clear or ambiguous probabilities. The results revealed a clear preference for the sure option in the ambiguity condition regardless of frame. However, participants presented a framing effect in both the risk and ambiguity conditions. Indeed, the framing effect was bidirectional in the risk condition and unidirectional in the ambiguity condition given that it did not involve preference reversal but only a more extreme choice tendency.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for the Psychology of Child Development and Education, CNRS UMR 8240, Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Laboratoire A. Binet, 46 rue Saint Jacques, 75005, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Anaïs
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Osmont
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cassotti
authors.forename: Marine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Agogué
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Houdé
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moutier
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012201:Reward; D012309:Risk-Taking; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult