Money as Security or Freedom: How Psychological Framing Shapes Financial Risk-Taking

This study investigates how value-based framing of money influenced financial risk-taking. Building on behavioral decision research, we examine whether framing money in terms of security or freedom, relative to a neutral frame, affects individuals’ financial risk decisions. In a between-subjects experimental design, approximately 180 participants will be randomly assigned to listen to a podcast-style vignette emphasizing one of the three money orientations. Following the vignette, participants will respond to an open-ended reflection question intended to reinforce the framing manipulation before completing a hypothetical iteration of the Holt-Laury paired lottery-choice task, a behavioral measure that infers risk aversion from a sequence of binary choices between relatively safe and relatively risky lotteries with systematically varying probabilities. Participants will also complete validated measures of money attitudes, financial literacy, financial impulsivity, and self-reported financial risk preferences, as well as socio-demographic measures. Data will be analyzed using ANOVA and regression models to estimate the main effects of framing conditions and potential interactions with individual difference variables. By integrating an experimental framing manipulation with behavioral and attitudinal measures of financial decision-making, the study aims to advance theoretical understanding of how value-based conceptions of money shape financial risk-taking.