Decision Making: Choosing Among Alternatives • 381One reason people’s decisions are affected by framing is that the way a problem is
stated can highlight some features of the situation (for example, that people will die) and
deemphasize others (Kahneman, 2003). It should not be a surprise that the way a choice
is stated can infl uence cognitive processes, because this is similar to what happens when
problems like the Wason task are stated in real-world terms. We also saw, in the chapter
on problem solving, that the way a problem is stated can infl uence our ability to solve it
(page 335). (Also see “If You Want to Know More: Physiology of Framing” on page 388.)Decision Making
To end our consideration of decision making, we will consider yet another factor that
infl uences how people make decisions. This factor is the need to justify the decision. We
can illustrate this by considering an experiment by Tversky and Eldar Shafi r (1992),
in which they presented the following problem to two groups of students. The “pass”
group saw the statement indicating that they passed; the “fail” group saw the statement
indicating that they failed.Imagine that you have just taken a tough qualifying examination. It is the end of the
semester, you feel tired and run-down, and you fi nd out that [(pass group) you passed
the exam; (fail group) you failed the exam and will have to take it again in a couple of
months—after the Christmas holidays]. You now have the opportunity to buy a very
attractive 5-day Christmas vacation package to Hawaii at an exceptionally low price. The
special offer expires tomorrow. Would you- Buy the vacation package?
- Not buy the vacation package?
- Pay a $5 nonrefundable fee in order to retain the right to buy the vacation package at
the same exceptional price the day after tomorrow?
200 saved400 die1/3 chance 2/3 chance600
savedNone
savedProgram A (72%)Program C (22%)Program B (28%)Program D (78%)1/3 chance 2/3 chanceNone
die600
die●FIGURE 13.12 How framing aff ects decision making. These pie charts diagram
the conditions set forth for Programs A, B, C, and D in the text. Note that the number
of deaths and probabilities for programs A and B are exactly the same as for programs
C and D. The percentages indicate the percentage of participants who picked each
program when given choices between A and B or between C and D. (Source: A. Tversky
& D. Kahneman, “The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice,” Science, 211, 453–458, 1981.
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