Explain why a description can change someone’s choice while every word in it stays true.
Explain why people judge with the information they think of first rather than everything they know.
Apply:
Rewrite a true description to change a listener’s judgment, and say what you told them and what you did not tell them.
Two Descriptions of the Same Package
Ground beef labeled 75% lean is rated better tasting than beef labeled 25% fat.
Both labels describe the same package.
Framing Effect: When the way information is presented changes how people interpret it, even though the facts remain the same.
The Disease Problem
The disease problem (1981): People chose between two programs for an outbreak expected to kill 600 people. Half read the outcomes worded as lives saved and half read the same outcomes worded as deaths. Each version offered one sure program and one gamble.
Worded as lives saved: 200 people will be saved, or a one third chance that all 600 are saved and a two thirds chance that no one is.
Worded as deaths: 400 people will die, or a one third chance that no one dies and a two thirds chance that all 600 die.
The Disease Problem, Continued
Finding: 72% took the sure program when it was worded as lives saved. Only 22% took that same sure program when it was worded as deaths.
When the outcome is worded as lives saved, more people choose the sure program. When it is worded as deaths, more people choose the gamble.
People take a sure gain rather than risk it, and they take a risk rather than accept a sure loss. The wording decides whether people see the outcome as a gain or as a loss.
Why Framing Works
Accessibility. People judge with the information they think of first rather than everything they know.
Priming. A word makes people think of a schema, which is a stored pattern of what goes with what, and that schema supplies the standard for judging.
Ex: “Lean” makes people think of healthy food. “Fat” makes people think of something to avoid. The label decides which standard gets used.
Attribute substitution. When a question is hard, people answer an easier one instead, often “how does this feel?”
Ex: “Is this beef good quality?” is hard. “Does 25% fat sound good?” is easy, so that is the question that gets answered.
What Framing Does Not Require
No false statement is needed. A speaker can tell one true fact and not tell the others.
The person being framed usually cannot tell that the wording changed their judgment.
Knowing about framing does not make you immune to it!
Exercise: Reframe a Real Decision
Pick one of these and rewrite it so a listener answers differently: