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The treatment has a 90% chance of saving your life

Or

The treatment has a 10% chance of failure, resulting in death

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Episode 23: Secrets of Psychology 6: Framing

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✓ People build a series of mental filters through biological and cultural influences. They use these filters to make sense of the world. The choices they then make are influenced by their creation of a frame.

Framing

✓ In English, that translates into the way we ask and make similar yet slightly different statements can have a profound impact on the result.

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✓ Framing is very powerful and it’s incredibly useful to know about and understand

✓ First slide - People respond very differently to the initial statement

✓ Much hope is given to the first statement (90% chance of survival)

✓ Whilst the attention goes to death in the second statement

✓ The statements are effectively exactly the same thing but the way it’s worded or “framed” is vital to its understanding and effect.

✓ If you were a doctor you would always say to a patient there is a X chance of living not dying. Even if 50/50.

Life or Death?

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✓ 80% lean meat or 20% fat meat?

✓ 5% risk of a sexual transmitted disease or 95% effective?

Which do you choose?

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✓ The way a question is asked has a drastic outcome on the result

✓ Which parent is awarded custody of a child?

Influencing mindset

Parent A Parent B

✓ Average income

✓ Average health

✓ Reasonable rapport with child

✓ Average working hours

✓ Above Average income

✓ Extremely active social life

✓ Very close with child

✓ Lots of work related travel

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✓ What about if the question is asked in a different way?

✓ Which parent should be denied sole custody?

Influencing mindset

✓ Awarded? 64% say parent B

✓ Denied? 55% say parent B too

✓ By using “denied” - judge focuses on bad traits

✓ By using “award” - focuses on good traits

✓ All to do with how the question is framed

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Framing with Anchoring

✓ Framing along with anchoring, (which is very similar to perceptual contrast) [see video] is another influencing technique.

✓ In a petrol station the way the attendant presents the difference between cash and credit card payments affects our perception.

✓ If the cash price is a discount, then the credit card payment becomes the default. If the credit card payment has a surcharge then the cash payment is seen as the default.

✓ Which is seen as more palatable? A discount or a surcharge? You feel better paying with credit card hearing that you are NOT being charged a surcharge. (it’s default and cash is discounted)

✓ Better still, if you pay by cash you know you are getting discount rather than paying a surcharge as people are loss adverse.

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✓ 1.) Think about how your statements and questions are asked and set out

✓ 2.) What you mention regularly.

✓ 3.) How the options are described with their attributes.

So... On a website and in design?

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