%A Gu,Ruolei %A Wu,Runguo %A Broster,Lucas S. %A Jiang,Yang %A Xu,Rui %A Yang,Qiwei %A Xu,Pengfei %A Luo,Yue-Jia %D 2017 %J Frontiers in Psychology %C %F %G English %K decision-making,framing effect,trait anxiety,Depression,Risk avoidance %Q %R 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00092 %W %L %M %P %7 %8 2017-January-31 %9 Original Research %+ Mr Pengfei Xu,Institute of Affective and Social Neuroscience, College of Psychology and Sociology, Shenzhen University,Shenzhen, China,pengfeixu.px@gmail.com %+ Mr Pengfei Xu,Center for Emotion and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience,Shenzhen, China,pengfeixu.px@gmail.com %+ Mr Pengfei Xu,Neuroimaging Center, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen,Groningen, Netherlands,pengfeixu.px@gmail.com %# %! Trait Anxiety and the Framing Effect %* %< %T Trait Anxiety and Economic Risk Avoidance Are Not Necessarily Associated: Evidence from the Framing Effect %U https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00092 %V 8 %0 JOURNAL ARTICLE %@ 1664-1078 %X According to previous literature, trait anxiety is related to the tendency to choose safety options during risk decision-making, that is, risk avoidance. In our opinion, anxious people’s risk preference might actually reflect their hypersensitivity to emotional information. To examine this hypothesis, a decision-making task that could elicit the framing effect was employed. The framing effect indicates that risk preference could be modulated by emotional messages contained in the description (i.e., frame) of options. The behavioral results have showed the classic framing effect. In addition, individual level of trait anxiety was positively correlated with the framing effect size. However, trait anxiety was not correlated with risk-avoidance ratio in any condition. Finally, the relationship between anxiety and the framing effect remained significant after the level of depression was also taken into account. The theoretical significance and the major limitations of this study are discussed.