Framing Bias

A psychological phenomenon which occurs when people are swayed into making a suboptimal decision on account of the way in which information was presented to them.

Decisions which are based on this cognitive bias are done so because the individual’s focus is contained by the way the information is presented to them rather than on the information and facts themselves.

This usually happens due to effects like the way information is worded, where the emphasis is set or if it is paired with a reference point.

The framing bias is usually counter by having more involvement with the topic at hand or when individuals are asked to provide the rationale behind their decision-making processes.

Framing Bias Explained

Amos Tversky and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahnemann proved the framing effect by virtue of a study in the late 20^th century.

The study propelled what is now known as “prospect theory” as both authors went on to focus on the framing effects in their 1979 work entitled “The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice”.

It this particular study, their participants were invited to choose between to treatments for people who had contracted a fatal disease. The results concluded that the preference for one of the treatments drastically changed simply on account of framing.

When the administration of a treatment was positively framed (200 out of 600 lives could be saved) 72% voted in favor, whereas when the very same treatment was negatively framed (400 people would die), results shown that only 22% of participants were supportive of administrating it.