Attention, frame condition, and decision making under risk: An empirical test of the Contingent Focus Model using an eye gaze recorder

Abstract

Identical problems may give rise to different decisions, due to subjective decision framing in which the decision-making process depends on how the situation is described. This is called the framing effect. We applied the contingent focus model (Takemura, 1994a) to explain the framing effect. The model hypothesizes that risk attitude depends on the extent to which a subject focuses on possible outcomes and probabilities (the focusing hypothesis), and that focusing on possible outcomes and probabilities is, in turn, contingent on contextual factors including positive/negative frame condition (the contingent focus hypothesis). These hypotheses were tested by the eye movement data obtained from 33 participants using an eye gaze recorder. The data indicated that participants whose ratio of total time gazing at words representing possible outcomes to the total time gazing at words representing possible outcomes and probabilities was higher preferred a risk-taking option. This ratio was higher under negative frame conditions than under positive frame conditions.

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