Weekly Seminar: Christine Exley, “Motivated Framing Effects” (Thursday, March 8th, 2018)

Framing effects are often attributed to misperceptions.  In this study, however, we document a large and robust framing effect that is not reflective of misperceptions.  Our framing effect persists when agents gain experience, pay attention, and are provided with information that prevents miscalculations.  We propose and provide evidence as to why our framing effect persists: the majority is driven by self-serving motives.  Our results suggest that framing effects, as well as other behavioral biases driven by self-serving motives, may be notably robust to de-biasing conditions.