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

这项研究的重点是解决美国日益严重的收入不平等的信息。经济学家和政策倡导者通常将收入不平等描述为已经发生的事情（即，在过去，富人变得更富），在监测日益严重的收入不平等和主张改革时。 为了强调这一现象的严重性，经济学家和政策倡导者也经常强调收入不平等是如何在很长一段时间内发生的（即，从长远来看，过去三十年来富人变得更富了）。从表面上看，强调过去在很长一段时间内直观地展现的似乎是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却暗示了另一种情况;将收入不平等的未来后果（富人将变得更富）和快速变化本项目系统地测试了如何用不同的时间框架来传达收入不平等，包括时间方向和持续时间，影响关于是否支持减少收入不平等努力的判断和决定。在两个随机实验中，使用美国成年人的一般人口样本，我们将比较预测未来收入不平等的信息的影响，而不是记录过去（时间方向），以及那些描述这种现象发生迅速（短期）或在一段较长的时间内（长期），在塑造对旨在减少收入不平等的再分配政策的支持。我们进一步研究了各种潜在的认知和情感机制负责这些假设的影响。在两个随机实验中，使用美国成年人的一般人群样本，我们将研究时间框架在人类判断和决策中的作用，以及时解决收入不平等的社会问题。本研究首先试图更好地理解回顾性框架与前瞻性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性判断的不同判断，从而为社会政策提供不同的支持。本研究还探讨了收入不平等如何在较短（慢）与较长（快）的持续时间内通过富裕（财富）的因果关系影响政策支持。该研究解决了我们对时间框架理解的理论和经验差距，同时扩展了先前报道的政策支持框架效应。它有助于收入不平等的文学研究的背景影响，特别是收入不平等的时间框架的过程和效果。在理论上，本文将从认知和情感心理机制的角度，阐明时间框架对社会判断和决策的影响机制。

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.