Neural substrates of framing effects in social contexts: A meta-analytical approach

We hypothesize that framing effects (risk-averse in the positive frame and risk-seeking in the negative frame) are likely to occur when ambiguous social contexts result in ambiguous or ambivalent risk preferences, leading the decision-maker to search for more subtle cues, such as verbal framing. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined framing effects in both unambiguous homogeneous group and more ambiguous heterogeneous group contexts. We began by conducting a meta-analysis and identified three regions of interest: the right inferior frontal gyrus, the left anterior cingulate (ACC)/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and the left amygdala. Our own fMRI data were collected while the participants made choices between a sure option and a gamble framed in terms of the number of lives to either save or die. The framing effect was evident in a heterogeneous context with a mixture of kin and strangers, but disappeared in a homogeneous group of either all kin-members or all strangers. The fMRI results revealed a greater activation in the right middle/inferior frontal gyrus under the negative than the positive framing, and less ACC/vmPFC deactivation under positive framing in the heterogamous/ambiguous context. The activation of the amygdala was correlated with greater risk-seeking preference in homogeneous kinship contexts.