{"id":1088,"slug":"tversky-kahneman-1981-framing-decisions-science","title":"Tversky & Kahneman 1981 (Science) — \"The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice\"","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["psychology-aversion","behavioral-economics","persuasion-design"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Tversky and Kahneman demonstrated that **logically identical prospects produce systematically different choices** when presented as gains versus losses. The classic Asian-disease experiment showed majority preferences flip between two formally equivalent options depending purely on gain-vs-loss framing.\n\n**Source:** Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981). \"The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice.\" *Science* 211(4481): 453–458.\n\n**Confidence:** Verified.\n\n**For Candid:** The *frame* a pitch arrives in does as much work as the underlying offer. A marketing engagement framed as \"investing $X for projected return Y\" sits in the gain frame and is evaluated against the certainty effect ([[tversky-kahneman-1992-probability-weighting-certainty-effect]]) — the probable upside is heavily discounted. The same engagement framed as \"exposure of at most $X over six months, with kill points at month 2 and 4\" reframes against the loss-domain reference point and engages a different — for this population more permissive — decision rule. This is the mechanism behind the bounded-loss frame ([[bounded-vs-implicit-loss-frame-distinction]]).","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-risk-aversion-post-failure-may-2026","title":"Research brief: risk aversion, loss aversion, and post-failure decision patterns in GC and trades-business decision-makers (May 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"bounded-vs-implicit-loss-frame-distinction","title":"Bounded-loss vs implicit-loss frame — implicit (\"you'll fall behind\") fails; bounded (\"max exposure $X, kill points at month 2 and 4\") works","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-25T13:13:30.936Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T13:13:30.936Z"}