Method

Subjects/Participants

Subjects consisted of 44 participants (11 males and 33 females) who enrolled in Psychology 331, sections A, B and C, at the University of Washington. Subjects consented to participation at the time of enrollment. Of those who participated, 41 were students in the class and three were instructors.

Materials

The only measure used in the experiment was a questionnaire devised by the experimenters. The questionnaire consisted of eight questions; each question contained a background scenario for which the subject was to make a choice affecting its outcome. The forced-choice design of the measure offered subjects either a sure answer (where the outcome has a 100% chance of occurring) or a risky answer (where one of two outcomes will occur and the probability of each actually occurring is given). Four questions were framed as a gain, and four questions were framed as a loss. For each of these frames, two questions offered a high payoff (relatively large consequences) and two questions offered a low payoff (relatively small consequences).