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The framing heuristic influences judgements about younger and older adults' decision to refuse medical treatment
Author(s) -
Rybash John M.,
Roodin Paul A.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.2350030207
Subject(s) - framing (construction) , psychology , framing effect , heuristic , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , medical information , injury prevention , social psychology , poison control , heuristics , clinical psychology , medical emergency , medicine , family medicine , persuasion , artificial intelligence , computer science , engineering , operating system , structural engineering
Three‐hundred and one young adults evaluated medical dilemmas in which a patient (1) was portrayed as either 40 or 70 years old, (2) decided to either refuse or consent to a risky treatment for a serious medical disorder, and (3) received either positively or negatively framed information about the potential effectiveness of a proposed medical treatment. Participants' evaluations of the patients' decisions reflected the implementation of a framing heuristic and an age heuristic . The framing heuristic influenced participants' judgements of patients who refused the proposed treatment. Specifically, information which was positively framed resulted in risk‐avoiding judgements, while information which was negatively framed resulted in risk‐taking judgements. The age heuristic predisposed participants to recommend that 40 year old patients, more so than 70‐year‐old patients, opt for high‐risk medical treatments that could potentially add a large number of years to their lives.