Positional concerns and framing effects in financial preferences

We examine the relevance of relative standings in the financial domain. We introduced innovative hypotheses by testing whether framing (gain versus loss, risk level, amounts versus percentage, and money origin) affects stated positional preferences. Based on a quasi-experimental survey in Algeria (North Africa), our results show that while egalitarian concerns are prevalent in financial preferences among participants, positional and absolute states are also selected by a significant proportion of respondents. We also found some support to the insight that positional preferences are affected by framing, since loss/gain and risk framings are found to be significant. In other words, the proportion of respondents having positional preferences was found to be significantly higher in the gain (respectively, risky) framing, compared to a symmetric loss (respectively, certain) situation.