Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Temporal Framing Effects on Decisions about Income Inequality

DRMS 博士论文研究：收入不平等决策的时间框架效应

• 批准号: 1425324
• 负责人: Jeffrey Niederdeppe
• 金额: $ 0.98万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1425324&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; DRMS; Temporal

This research focuses on messages addressing the growing income inequality in America. Economists and policy advocates commonly describe income inequality as something that has already occurred (i.e., in the past, the rich got richer) when monitoring growing income inequality and arguing for reform. In order to emphasize the severity of this phenomenon, economists and policy advocates also often emphasize how income inequality has occurred over an extended period of time (i.e., in the long-term, the rich have gotten richer for the past three decades ). On its face, highlighting past instances of seeming exploitation that unfolded over a long period of time intuitively appears to be more persuasive. However, recent work in the psychology of human judgment and decision-making hints otherwise; that framing income inequality in terms of its future consequences (the rich will get richer) and rapid changes (in a few short years) holds greater potential to increase concern and support for policies and actions to address it. This project systematically tests how alternate temporal frames to communicate income inequality, including temporal direction and temporal duration, influence judgments and decisions about whether or not to support efforts to reduce income inequality. In two randomized experiments using a general population sample of U.S. adults we will compare the impact of messages projecting future income inequality rather than documenting the past (temporal direction), and those that describe the phenomenon as occurring quickly (short-term) or over an extended period of time (long-term), in shaping support for redistributive policies aimed to reduce income inequality. We further examine a variety of potential cognitive and affective mechanisms responsible for these hypothesized effects. In two randomized experiments using a general population sample of U.S. adults, we will examine the role of temporal frames in human judgment and decision-making with respect to a timely social issue of income inequality. This research first seeks to better understand how considering retrospectively-framed versus prospectively-framed income inequality brings about disparate judgments on the controllability of the situation, negative emotional response, and fairness judgments, thereby drawing differential support for social policy. This research also examines how income inequality framed in a shorter (slow) vs. longer (fast) duration influences policy support via causal attribution of affluence (wealth). The research addresses theoretical and empirical gaps in our understanding of temporal framing while extending previously-reported framing effects in policy support. It contributes to the literature on income inequality by examining a contextual influence and specifically the process and effects of temporal framing of income inequality. Theoretically, it will illuminate the mechanisms of temporal framing effects on social judgments and decisions by examining the relevant cognitive and affective psychological mechanisms.

这项研究的重点是解决美国日益严重的收入不平等问题的信息。经济学家和政策倡导者通常将收入不平等描述为在监测日益扩大的收入不平等并主张改革时已经发生的事情(即过去富人变得更富有)。为了强调这一现象的严重性，经济学家和政策倡导者还经常强调收入不平等是如何在很长一段时间内发生的(即从长期来看，富人在过去30年里变得更加富有)。从表面上看，它直观地强调了过去看似剥削的例子，似乎更有说服力。然而，最近在人类判断和决策心理学方面的研究表明情况并非如此；从收入不平等的未来后果(富人将变得更富有)和快速变化(在短短几年内)来框定收入不平等，具有更大的潜力，可以增加人们对解决收入不平等问题的政策和行动的关注和支持。该项目系统地测试了交流收入不平等的交替时间框架，包括时间方向和时间持续时间，如何影响关于是否支持减少收入不平等的努力的判断和决定。在两个使用美国成年人总体样本的随机实验中，我们将比较预测未来收入不平等而不是记录过去(时间方向)的信息，以及那些描述这种现象迅速(短期)或长期(长期)发生的信息，在塑造对旨在减少收入不平等的再分配政策的支持方面的影响。我们进一步研究了导致这些假想效应的各种潜在的认知和情感机制。在两个使用美国成年人总体样本的随机实验中，我们将研究时间框架在人类对收入不平等这一及时的社会问题的判断和决策中的作用。这项研究首先试图更好地理解考虑回溯框架和预期框架的收入不平等如何导致对情况的可控性、负面情绪反应和公平判断的不同判断，从而获得对社会政策的不同支持。这项研究还考察了收入不平等在较短(缓慢)和较长(快速)持续时间内是如何通过对富裕(财富)的因果归因影响政策支持的。这项研究解决了我们在理解时间框架方面的理论和经验差距，同时扩大了之前报道的政策支持中的框架效应。它通过研究背景影响，特别是收入不平等的时间框架的过程和影响，为关于收入不平等的文献做出贡献。从理论上讲，它将通过考察相关的认知和情感心理机制来阐明时间框架对社会判断和决策的影响机制。