Running head: PROTECTED VALUES AND FRAMING EFFECTS Protected Values: No Omission Bias and No Framing effects

Previous studies suggest that people holding protected values show a bias against harmful acts as opposed to harmful omissions (omission bias). Protected values (PVs) have been seen as grounded in deontological moral rules to avoid causing harm. The present study 1) investigated the relationship between PVs and acts of commission versus omission in risky choices, using a paradigm where act and omission biases were presented in a symmetrical manner, and 2) examined whether people holding protected values respond differently to framing manipulations. Participants were given environmental scenarios and asked to make choices between actions and omissions. Both the framing of the outcomes (positive vs. negative) and the outcome certainty (risky vs. certain) were manipulated. In contrast to previous studies, we found that PVs were linked to preferences for actions. PVs were more likely to be associated with moral obligations to act rather than moral prohibitions against action. Strikingly, people with strong PVs were immune to framing; participants with few PVs showed robust framing effects.