Gain/Loss Framing Effects

Amos Tversky and David Kahneman's work in the 1980s on framing (presentation) effects was a stimulus for other researchers to examine how these effects affect medical decision making. Interestingly, the work by Tversky and Kahneman in framing effects was based on consideration of a transmissible infectious disease in a population.

Tversky and Kahneman's use of the term frame was in the arena of type of description applied to data. In its most basic sense, framing refers to the way in which medical decision making alternatives are presented. For example, in one frame, all data might be presented in terms of survival; in the second frame, all data could be presented in terms of mortality. Here, the term framing effect would be similar to the term presentation ...