IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v122y2026ics2214804326000510.html

Frames move thresholds, not slopes

Author

Listed:
  • Morone, Andrea

Abstract

A parent faces a familiar dilemma: treat a child’s fever now or wait and monitor. Two messages describe the same risk, but in opposite ways—“30% may worsen without antibiotics” versus “70% may improve without antibiotics.” Do such mirror-worded frames change health choices, and do they work more strongly when people feel anxious? Using a within-respondent vignette design in an Italian survey (N=1,074), we compare probability-equivalent frames in two domains: antibiotics (treat now vs wait) and vaccination (vaccinate vs not). Framing reliably shifts choices: loss-salient wording increases immediate antibiotic use by 10.7 percentage points, and safety-salient wording increases vaccination uptake by 3.4 percentage points. However, the framing gap remains largely stable across anxiety levels: anxiety relates to overall action propensity, but it does not systematically amplify frame sensitivity. Trust in doctors and media/social reliance are associated with baseline propensities, yet their moderating patterns are small and imprecise. Overall, the findings suggest a simple implication for health communication: under probability equivalence, framing mainly resets action thresholds rather than acting as an anxiety-based amplifier—highlighting both the practical power and the limits of “fear/urgency” messaging.

Suggested Citation

  • Morone, Andrea, 2026. "Frames move thresholds, not slopes," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:122:y:2026:i:c:s2214804326000510
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2026.102560
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804326000510
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2026.102560?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • C35 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:122:y:2026:i:c:s2214804326000510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.