Abstract: Attribute framing effect refers to the phenomenon that evaluations of an object or event are more favorable if a key attribute within any given context is framed in positive rather than negative terms. Attribute framing effect widely exists in consumer judgment, medical treatments, political decision and other decision-making fields. Currently, the researchers have used cognitive mechanism of valence, reference dependence, query theory and the view of cognitive neural mechanisms to illustrate the generation mechanism of attribute framing effect. Researchers have found that experience, personality traits, numeracy, need for cognitive closure may influence the attribute framing effect. Future researches on attribute framing effect should focus on the following five aspects, such as deepening our understanding of its original roots and influential factors, expanding its applied values, exploring the situation in which decision maker prefer to the negative framing and at last clarifying the relationship between attribute framing effect and other decision phenomena.

Key words: attribute framing effect, valence process, reference dependence, query theory, need for cognitive closure