4.3 Framing the problem
As you saw in Activity 1, how a problem is framed can have a significant effect on how you make decisions. Medical decisions can be affected by whether outcomes are framed as likelihood of deaths or of saving patients. Financial decisions can be affected by whether you see yourself in a position of loss or gain. In a position of gain we tend to become risk averse; in a position of loss we will tend to take risks to avoid or recover losses. You may know people who are good at using this to their advantage; they exert influence by framing choices so that others will choose the option they prefer. Box 1 gives an example of how framing can affect our recall of relevant ‘facts’.
Box 1: The effect of question framing on recall
Framing effects can be quite subtle and even affect our recall of events. For example, in one study, groups of students were shown a film of a car accident. Each group of students was shown the same film clip and then asked ‘How fast were the cars going when they xxxx each other?’ ‘xxxx’ was different for each group, variously ‘smashed into’, ‘collided into’, ‘bumped into’, ‘hit’ and ‘contacted’. The table below shows the average speed estimated by each group.
| Verb | Mean Estimate of Speed (mph) |
|---|---|
| Smashed | 40.8 |
| Collided | 39.3 |
| Bumped | 38.1 |
| Hit | 34.0 |
| Contacted | 31.8 |
Those who were asked the ‘smashed’ question were also more likely to believe they had seen broken glass in the film clip than those who were asked the ‘hit’ question. There was no broken glass.