Framing effect
The same information, told in a different way, for example as a gain or as a loss, leads us to decide differently.
What problem it addresses
It explains why saying “90% success” or “10% failure” can change a decision even though both figures say the same thing.
An example
A disease threatens 600 people, and you must choose between a safe plan and a risky one. The outcomes are the same; only the way they are told changes.
Saving 200 out of 600 is the same as 400 out of 600 dying. Changing the words reversed the preference.
Why it happens
We don’t evaluate data in the abstract, but as they are presented to us.
Talking about gains makes us cautious; talking about losses, risk-seeking.
We rarely translate one frame into the other to check that they say the same thing.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Present data in the frame that aids understanding and, if the decision is important, in both.
Avoid
Choosing the frightening or reassuring frame to push a decision.
Don’t fall for it
Before deciding, flip the figure: from success to failure, from gaining to losing.
72% → 22%
What the research says
People who chose the safe plan when the problem spoke of lives saved and when it spoke of deaths (Tversky and Kahneman, 1981).
Solid evidence. It is one of the effects replicated in the Many Labs project (Klein et al., 2014).
Connections
Authors and works
- 1981
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman
Demonstrated it with the disease problem and other dilemmas.
Sources
Original sources
- Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 211(4481), 453–458. View source: Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981)
Academic reviews
- Klein, R. A., Ratliff, K. A., Vianello, M. et al. (2014). Investigating variation in replicability: A “Many Labs” replication project. Social Psychology, 45(3), 142–152. View source: Klein, R. A., Ratliff, K. A., Vianello, M. et al. (2014)
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