Research has shown that frames affect learning strategy selection, as well as strategies students adopt when faced with a difficult learning task. Depending on how the task is framed, students may be more or less motivated to engage in desirable difficulties.

How the task is framed 

Changing the message by making alterations to how the content is presented, in order to change how the reader feels about it. On the most basic level, the information is the same, but the connotations are different. Example: using the term 'undocumented immigrants' vs. 'illegal aliens'.

Spin framing

Highlighting the good or the bad by changing the angle that information is presented from. Example: referring to a surgery's survival rate of 90% (positive) or the death rate of 10%.

Positive and negative framing

The framing effect is the idea in psychology that the way a question or sentence is phrased, or "framed" can influence a person's response to it. This concept was applied to a study conducted by Petrinovich (1996) in which respondents were given moral dilemmas involving the death of another person. However, half of the respondents were given moral dilemmas that used the word "kill" when referring to the deaths, and half were given the word "save." The outcomes of the dilemmas were identical, but results indicated that the actual phrasing of the questions strongly influenced a respondent's response -- showing the way that the framing effect and wording bias can shape our opinions. 

The Relationship Between the Framing Effect and Moral Dilemmas Node: How Wording Influences Moral Intuitions

In a study conducted by Magelssen (2016), participants were asked about their support regarding euthanasia, or assisted dying. Half of the participants were given a question where the word euthanasia was replaced with "intentional killing," while the other half were given a question where the word euthanasia was replaced with "self-determined ending of life." Because of the connotations of the two terms, respondents were far less likely to support euthanasia when they were given the term involving the word "killing," although the two concepts are synonymous -- showing how the framing effect and wording bias strongly influences our views of controversial and complex topics.

The Relationship Between the Framing Effect and Assisted Suicide: How Wording Influences Support for Euthanasia

In a study conducted by Yamagishi (1997), participants were asked to assess the risk of contracting a certain disease. When presented with cancer statistics, participants believed cancer was more dangerous and threatening when it was described as killing 1,286/10,000 people, as opposed to when it was described as killing 24.14/100 people, although the former statistic is higher. The reason for this was the framing of the two statistics led to the perception that the first statistic, which has more shock value, was more threatening -- showing how the framing effect can even lead people's cognitive reasoning and deduction down an incorrect path. 

The Relationship Between the Framing Effect and Risk Assessment: How Wording Influences Respondent's Views of Threat

When reviewing studies regarding the framing effect and wording bias, the concepts it is being applied to are nearly always concepts that are outside of a respondent's control. For example, in the Yamagishi (1997) study, participants were asked to assess the risk of cancer, based on two differently framed statistics. The risk of being diagnosed with cancer is a variable that is outside individual control, which begs the question: what if the variable is within our control, such as jaywalking or lying? If participants were asked whether it is okay to cheat on a test, with two different framed questions, how would that change responses? For example, say half of respondents were told that 40% of people who cheat on tests get caught, and the other half were told that 60% of people who cheat don't get caught. Those statistics are equivalent but framed differently, and the concept of lying is within individual control. How would this alter a respondent's choice?

Is it possible that the framing effect differs in terms of effect when the concept it is being applied to is within a respondent's control?

People's decisions are affected by the way that the choices are framed (presented).

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- Availability bias
- Negativity bias
- Base rate neglect
- Confirmation bias
- Status quo bias
- Framing effect
- Belief bias
- Hindsight bias
- Propaganda effect
- Bias blind spot
- Egocentric bias
- Fundamental Attribution Error
- Motivated reasoning
- Group-centric bias
- Third person effect
- Cross-group bias
- Ingroup bias
- Memory bias
- Prior Belief bias
- Bias Blind spots


List of biases (and behavioral effects)

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

The mind tends to ignore base rates (even if informed) and focuses on the most recently discovered evidence. Generally underweighted or neglected when specific casee information is available

base rate neglect (fallacy)

People have a tendency to do nothing when facing a decision (exemplified by opt-in and opt-out procedures).

Status quo bias

Framing effect

People have a tendency to think a syllogism is valid if it looks like it is true.

Belief Bias

Hindsight bias, also known as the 'knew-it-all-along' phenomenon, is the tendency to perceive past events as having been more predictable than they actually were. After an event's outcome is known, individuals often mistakenly believe they would have accurately predicted it beforehand.

Hindsight Bias

When people have heard something before they are more likely to assume it is true, even if the first time they were introduced to it they were told it wasn't true.

Propaganda effect

Humans have a bias to think they are less biased than others. Arises from the implicit operation of our beliefs which help us justify our actions. This can exacerbate other forms of bias because one is unaware of their own bias or they minimize their bias in comparison to others.

Bias Blind Spot

Humans have a tendency to focus on the negative. For example, we focus more on potential threats than benefits.

Negativity bias

Humans tend to overestimate the influence of personality (dispositional) compared to situational factors when making explanations for why people do what they do. 

The Fundamental Attribution Error

A bias in which new information that supports what we want to believe is readily accepted and information that supports what we do not want to believe is scrutinized in an effort to reduce cognitive dissonance. Motivated reasoning is very similar to confirmation bias

Motivated Reasoning

A hypothesis that people believe mass media has a larger influence on others than on themselves

Third Person Effect

When members of a particular population or community (i.e., group) favor the group of which they are a member for a particular measure.

Group-Centric Bias

When group members have negative views towards nonmembers of their group, not limited to nonmembers who are related to the group in an obvious way. 

Cross-Group Bias

Although humans ordinarily prioritize self-enhancing information, individuals also often perceive news media as largely opposing their personal beliefs.

Biases in media perception

A common type of bias that occurs when one does not recall information verbatim but instead recalls their own personal interpretation of the information.

Memory Bias

When a person's prior beliefs or attitudes impact what information they pay attention to and how they interpret new information. This bias often manifests as favoring information that is consistent with one's worldview and beliefs.

Prior Belief Bias

Confirmation bias is the cognitive tendency to selectively focus on cases that validate our pre-existing intuitive beliefs while actively disregarding or forgetting cases that disconfirm them. This mental shortcut leads individuals to reinforce incorrect assumptions by ignoring contradictory evidence.

Confirmation Bias

The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut where individuals make decisions based on information that is most easily recalled, such as a recent experience or a vivid example. This reliance on readily available information can lead to flawed judgments, as the most accessible information is not always the most representative or accurate for making a sound decision.

Availability Heuristic

Humans place themselves at the center of their universe. New information is learned more easily when it relates to the person learning it.

Egocentric Bias

In-group bias is the tendency to prefer one's own group over other groups. This preference stems from the strong sense of belonging and emotional connection individuals feel toward their in-groups.

Learn Before

Related

Learn After