Three studies investigate the impact of the amount of elaboration on framing effects. In all three studies, participants were exposed to decision scenarios similar to the 'Asian disease' problem (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981). The results replicated previous findings: Participants avoided the risky option when the scenario was framed in terms of gains, but preferred the risky option when the scenario was framed in terms of losses. Most importantly, these effects were most pronounced when participants spent more time working on the decision, because of either increased elaboration time (Study 1 and 2) or increased processing motivation (Study 3). Moreover, increased elaboration increased framing effects only when the situation required the scenario to be enriched with additional information. The discussion focuses on the possibility that increased elaboration may not necessarily result in less bias in social judgment and decision making
