Positive framing when assessing the personal resources to manage one's finances increases consumers' retirement self‐efficacy and improves retirement goal clarity

People are increasingly expected to take an active role in preparing for a financially secure future, and thus face added personal financial responsibility. Unfortunately, many consumers lack the perceived ability to engage effectively in retirement planning (i.e., retirement self‐efficacy) and accordingly fail to envision their financial future and set appropriate goals. However, little is known about how to improve consumers' retirement self‐efficacy and when and why potential policy interventions will be more or less effective. In the current paper, we address this shortcoming of prior literature. Through a series of experiments, we show that when consumers assess personal resources to achieve a financially secure future, positive framing focusing on strengths instead of weaknesses is associated with higher retirement self‐efficacy through an increased internal locus of control. Higher self‐efficacy, in turn, leads to improved retirement goal clarity, with the improvement being more pronounced for individuals having a lower consideration of future consequences. In a follow‐up study three months after the initial experimental intervention, we find that retirement goal clarity is positively associated with consumers' level of actual retirement planning activity. Finally, we replicate our findings using an advertisement as an alternative, marketing‐relevant, manipulation.