Framing to reduce present bias in infrastructure design intentions

Patrick I Hancock; Leidy Klotz; Tripp Shealy; Eric J Johnson; Elke U Weber; Katelyn Stenger; Richa Vuppuluri

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.103954

Framing to reduce present bias in infrastructure design intentions

iScience. 2022 Feb 19;25(3):103954. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.103954. eCollection 2022 Mar 18.

Authors

Patrick I Hancock¹, Leidy Klotz¹, Tripp Shealy², Eric J Johnson³, Elke U Weber⁴, Katelyn Stenger¹, Richa Vuppuluri¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, University of Virginia, 114 Olsson Hall 151 Engineers Way, P.O. Box 400747, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA.
² Charles Edward Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 200 Patton Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
³ Columbia Business School, 3022 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Princeton University, 309 Peretsman Scully Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.

Abstract

Infrastructure professionals (N = 261) were randomly assigned to either a future or present-framed project description and asked to recommend design attributes for an infrastructure project. The future-framed condition led professionals to propose a significantly longer infrastructure design life, useful life to the community, and acceptable return on financial investment. The findings suggest a straightforward and inexpensive way to lessen present bias in various design contexts.

Keywords: Civil engineering; Construction engineering; Interdisciplinary application studies; Sociology.