The role of framing and cognitive dissonance in incentives.

Abstract

The present study was designed to determine whether the framing of incentives is a major contributing factor to incentive attractiveness as well as determining whether cognitive dissonance is the underlying motivating factor in attractive incentive programs. Subjects were 30 civil service employees (17 male and 13 female). Subjects were administered a questionnaire consisting of two sections. In section one, subjects were asked to choose between an incentive framed as a loss and an incentive framed as a gain. Section two asked subjects to rate each of the twelve incentives in section one on a Likert type scale. Three hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis one: an incentive framed as a gain will be preferred over an incentive framed as a loss. Hypothesis two: if an incentive framed as a loss was chosen over the same incentive framed as a gain, cognitive dissonance would be greater. Hypothesis three: if an incentive framed as a loss was chosen over one framed as a gain, in the first section of the questionnaire, the incentive framed as a loss would be rated significantly higher in attractiveness compared to other incentives in section two. Proportions were reported for hypothesis one. Multiple regression analysis was utilized to test hypothesis two and three. In general, support was found for hypothesis one and hypothesis three, but not hypothesis two. These findings indicate that incentives framed as a gain are preferred over incentives framed as a loss. They also suggest that incentives framed as a gain are rated significantly higher on attractiveness than incentives framed as a loss.