Framing Effects: Implications in Complex Problem Solving Tasks

Abstract

In decision-making literature, framing effects have been studied in a wide number of task and context conditions. In much of these studies, there is strong support that decision framing can result in inconsistent behavior among individuals. While much of the literature has been in static, one-time tasks, there is a dearth of studies in decision framing in complex problem solving tasks. This dearth in part can be attributed to an assumption that operators in complex environments are often well trained in decision-making routines, and as such, may not be vulnerable to framing effects. However, what is still unclear is whether trained operators are resistant to the effects of framing when they operate under non-routine conditions, and more importantly, what relation, information processing changes caused due to framing may have on the task performance of operators. The study reported here was conducted to answer these two questions. The outcome of this work is expected to have both theoretical and practical implication towards understanding individual's adaptive behavior and design of real time complex systems.