Framing effects from a semantic-pragmatic perspective

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Berry Claus
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 504442313

Framing effects are effects of linguistic variation on judgement and decision making. For example, when the outcome of a plan to tackle the economic crisis of a company is described in terms of number of jobs to be saved it will be endorsed more often than when it is framed in terms of number of jobs to be lost (e.g. The plan will result in [the saving of 2,000 out of 6,000 jobs] / [the loss of 4,000 out of 6,000 jobs]). Framing effects have been extensively investigated in psychological research on judgement and decision making. However, the source of framing effects is not yet settled. The overall goal of this project is to advance the understanding of framing effects by studying them from a semantic-pragmatic perspective. The project will target two existing semantic-pragmatic accounts of framing effects. One of them proposes that framing effects have their source in a lower-bound reading of numerals (e.g. at least 2,000 vs. at least 4,000). The other account attributes framing effects to different counterfactual alternatives (e.g. alternative numbers of jobs to be saved vs. to be lost) and explains them in matters of a counterfactual systematicity of judgements and choices. The project aims at scrutinising the scope and validity of these accounts. Furthermore, it aims at exploring the feasibility and empirical imperative of an alternative semantic-pragmatic account in terms of immediate valence appraisal that links to and augments psychological dual process models of framing effects. The experiments of the project will investigate how numeral interpretation relates to framing effects and how framing effects and appraisal of valence are modulated by numeral modification (e.g. The plan will result in the saving of exactly/at most/up to 2,000 jobs).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants