The Framing Effect

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Here's a thought experiment.

You've been told you have lung cancer.

The doctor asks if you want treatment. She tells you:

"68% survive one year after surgery"

Hearing this, you'd probably opt for surgery, that's what the majority pick¹.

But what if the doctor said:

"32% die within one year after surgery"

Now, if you're like those in this¹ study, you'd be less likely to choose surgery.

It's the same odds of survival. But the wording changed behaviour.

This is the Framing Effect.

The Framing Effect

The framing effect raises a challenge.

The way we ask a question alters the answer.

One study cited in Paradox of Choice² asked participants to read short descriptions of two parents.

After, half were asked:

“Which parent would you award custody to?”

The other half were asked:

"Which parent would you deny custody to?”

Although both questions refer to the same decision, they yielded opposite results.

Swapping “award” with “deny” made people focus on different traits and ultimately choose different parents.

Opinion polls struggle with this too.

Moore³ found that participants were more likely to support a policy when it was framed as the government “not allowing” something...

...than when the same policy was framed as the government “forbidding” it.

The way you frame a question can drastically influence the answer.

Are you asking customers what they "love" about your product, and "hate" about your competitor... if so, your results might be invalid.

​Phill​

P.S. Check out the fantastic book Consumer.ology for more on this.