Effects of information frame, response frame, and goal on personnel decision making

Hypothetical personnel recommendations were investigated, using an experimentally manipulated response frame, information frame, and goal. In the first study, 172 students viewed two performance distributions of all managers in two departments. Participants recommended laying off the fewest number of people in the layoff response frame condition, especially when the goal was to save the company money. Also, frames and goal affected postdecision questions about decision difficulty and the match between current and trajectory images. These results were partially replicated in a second study in which 62 students received information manager-by-manager without a graphic display of the distribution. An additional follow-up study replicated the response frame effect when the distribution of information was skewed.