Sticky Frames and What's in a Name: Frames Stick to Particular Objects

Abstract

A growing literature on sequential framing effects has documented a negativity bias: In many contexts, attitudes change less when framing switches from negative-to-positive (vs. positive-to-negative). However, it is unclear whether this negativity bias sticks to one attitude object or generalizes beyond it. Novel paradigms in two experiments yielded strong evidence for the first possibility and tentative evidence for the second: Switching to a different object (vs. same object) across time points reduced the negativity bias in reframing. In contrast, superficially rebranding an object (just changing its name) did not reduce negativity bias. The experiments also provide the first evidence that positive frames are somewhat sticky: A positive initial frame somewhat attenuated the impact of a negative subsequent frame on attitudes. The findings are consistent with the possibility that once an object is framed negatively or positively, that conceptualization sticks in the mind and resists subsequent reframing—especially for negative frames.