Framing Effects on the COVID‐19 See‐Saw

This article explores people’s preferences for different containment strategies and policy programmes for managing COVID‐19 risks. Using a survey experiment administered to an online sample of 1’562 Italian respondents in April 2020, we test whether and to what extent individual preferences are influenced by different framings of equivalent scenarios on gains and losses attached to alternative policy measures aimed at containing the health and economic costs of the pandemic. We find that subjects tend to be more risk‐averse or risk‐seeking depending on whether they are confronted with a positive (gain) or a negative (loss) description of the consequences of the proposed policy initiatives. The results yield relevant implications for our understanding of citizens’ support for national and EU‐wide responses to the coronavirus pandemic and the role of framing in contexts of crisis.