Framing Effect

Reversal of preference when logically identical options are described as gains rather than losses.

Specifications & Metrics

type

Cognitive

introduced

1981

originator

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman

Core Principles & Analysis

• In the 1981 Asian-disease problem, describing outcomes as lives saved rather than lives lost reversed majority choice.
• The effect follows prospect theory's prediction that losses loom larger than equivalent gains.
• Tversky and Kahneman's Science paper remains one of the most cited in behavioral decision research.

Sources

• Tversky & Kahneman (1981), Science — DOI 10.1126/science.7455683