A study of cognitive effort of decision makers with different nc under framing

The purpose of this study is to examine cognitive effort of decision makers with different need for cognition (NC) while making decision under framing. Hundreds of empirical studies have demonstrated the framing effect moderating by NC in various contexts. However, these studies often treated cognition as a black box and focused on the outcomes rather than on the process by which decisions with different NC are made. In order to explore cognitive process of decision makers with different NC under framed problems, our research observes the cognitive effort of decision makers with different NC (High vs. Low NC) under different framing (Positive vs. Negative framing) from the perspective of their information process. A laboratory experiment of 65 subjects was conducted. Eye-tracking was applied to evaluate decision makers' cognitive effort. The results indicate that all subjects are susceptible to framing effect, and NC doesn't moderate framing effect. Decision makers with high NC will spend more cognitive effort to framed problems. In addition, decision makers with high NC, compared with those with low NC, will pay more cognitive effort in negative frame, but not for positive framing. Finally, there is no significant relationship between cognitive effort and framing effect. The results could compensate the shortage of past studies related to framing effect and NC, which only focused on final choices. In addition, by using eye tracking, we also unveil the track of information process before framing effect generated, which could benefit the richness of research on framing effect and NC.