An intriguing finding in the decision-making literature is that, when people have to choose between sure and risky options of equal expected value, they typically take more risks when decisions are framed as losses instead of gains (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981). This framing effect is robust and has important implications for health, finance, and politics. However, theoretical debate exists on the origins of this effect. Moreover, pronounced task-related, individual, and developmental differences exist in the magnitude of the effect. These two issues-theoretical debate and differential framing effectscan be solved together, as an adequate theory of the framing effect should both describe the effect itself and describe differences therein. Therefore, we compare four theories on their capacity to describe differential framing effects: cumulative prospect theory (CPT), fuzzy trace theory (FTT), dual process theory, and a hybrid theory (HT) incorporating elements from lexicographic theory and fuzzy trace theory. First, in a theoretical analysis and empirical review, we build on recent advances in the fields of decision making, brainbehavior relationships, and cognitive development. Second, in an empirical study, we directly compare these theories by using a new experimental task and new analytic approach in which we use hierarchical Bayesian model-based mixture analysis of theories. Taken together, results indicate that differential framing effects are best described by the notion that the majority of decision makers decide according to the hybrid theory, and a sizable minority according to cumulative prospect theory and fuzzy trace theory. We discuss implications of these results for our understanding of the framing effect, and for decision making in general.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is related to suboptimal decision making in experimental tasks and to real-life risk-taking behavior (RTB) such as substance abuse and unsafe traffic conduct. In this preregistered study, we tested whether these associations are mediated by need for cognition-the extent to which one tends towards, and enjoys, analytical thought. In a large sample of young adults (N = 463, M age = 19.7 years), we tested whether need for cognition mediated the association between self-reported ADHD symptoms on the one hand and decisionmaking strategy complexity on an experimental gambling task and self-reported reallife RTB on the other hand. Preregistered confirmatory analyses indicated first that ADHD symptoms were positively associated with real-life RTB, but the association was not mediated by need for cognition. Second, ADHD symptoms were not related to decision-making strategy complexity, and need for cognition was not a significant mediator. Explorative analyses revealed that (a) need for cognition was associated with higher decision-making accuracy and slower reaction time; (b) need for cognition was related to inattentive but not to hyperactive/impulsive ADHD symptoms; (c) need for cognition was associated with health-related RTB but not interpersonal RTB; and (4) only the association between inattention and health-related RTB was mediated by need for cognition. We conclude that need for cognition is not a mediator in the association between ADHD symptoms and RTB. Additionally, we conclude that neither ADHD symptoms nor need for cognition predict decision-making strategy complexity. Implications for both future research and clinical practice are discussed.
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