Framing Effect
We draw different conclusions from the same information depending on how it is presented.
The framing effect is a cognitive bias where people decide on options based on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations. For example, 'a 90% survival rate' and 'a 10% mortality rate' describe the same statistical reality but produce very different emotional and decision-making responses. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky's 1979 prospect theory formalized this effect.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Marketing 95% Fat Free Labelling yogurt as '95% fat free' sells far more than identical yogurt labeled '5% fat'.
- Politics Estate Tax vs Death Tax The same tax is called 'estate tax' (neutral) or 'death tax' (negative frame) to produce different public sentiment.
Someone has already built a business on this.
Biases are not only private errors. They are design targets — patterns deliberately engineered into interfaces because they reliably work.
- E-commerce Loss-Framed CTAs Subscription opt-outs are labelled 'No, I don't want to save money' to frame opting out as an irrational loss rather than a neutral choice.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
A person is more likely to choose a credit card with a rewards program than one without, even if the rewards are minimal, because the rewards frame creates a perception of gaining value that makes the card seem more attractive despite equivalent overall costs.
A person is more willing to try a restaurant described as having four out of five positive reviews than one with one out of five negative reviews, even though the ratings are equivalent, because the positive frame emphasizes approval while the negative frame highlights disapproval.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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