Negative Emotional Context Reverses Charitable Framing Effect: Behavioral and Neural Evidence

Extensive research shows that charitable framing (gain vs. loss) shapes donation intentions. However, questions persist concerning how emotional context interacts with framing effects to impact both donation intentions and subsequent evaluations of outcomes. The present study combined electroencephalography and multivariate pattern analysis to investigate neural responses to gain- and loss-framed charitable appeals under neutral and negative emotions. Behaviorally, negative emotions reversed the charitable framing effect observed under a neutral emotional context, as gain-framed appeals elicited a greater donation intention than loss-framed appeals. Neurologically, during the donation stage, donation proposals following gain-framed (vs. loss-framed) appeals under a negative context produced larger N2 and P3 amplitudes. Multivariate pattern analysis demonstrated robust decoding of framing types from electroencephalography signals throughout early to late processing stages, independent of whether the emotional context was neutral or negative. In the feedback stage, the feedback-related negativity effect (larger feedback-related negativity for negative feedback than positive feedback) was absent in gain-framed conditions but emerged in loss-framed conditions under a negative emotional context. Time-frequency analysis confirmed that framing effects on outcome evaluation are emotion sensitive. The current findings extend previous research by demonstrating that the charitable framing effect on donation behavior and outcome evaluation depends on the emotional context.