{"id":2958,"date":"2023-12-06T22:44:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T22:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/?p=2958"},"modified":"2024-07-19T08:45:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T08:45:57","slug":"framing-positioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/framing-positioning\/","title":{"rendered":"Framing & Positioning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(image credit<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is framing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The basic idea is simple: You can change something’s meaning by changing what it appears with – but without changing the thing itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a quick example: How do you feel about fire? Probably positively when you think about one twinkling away in a fireplace, warming your toes on a cold night. Probably negatively when you imagine one spewing smoke and micro-particle pollution into your lungs and the atmosphere#up. The fire hasn’t changed, only the associations you paired it with.<\/p>\n\n\n

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#down. It turns out that wood fires are worse for us<\/a> than we thought<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
Framing can apply whenever a thing can be seen in more than one way – which is nearly everything. It works by shifting which context the thing is seen in. In other words: which other ideas are seen as salient for helping to interpret it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Framing<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Cues which shape how something is evaluated, by manipulating which other ideas are seen as salient<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Why is it called “framing”?<\/h5>
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The term comes from the frames paintings are hung up in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever you make a painting (or take a photo, or edit one by cropping it) you must decide where its edges will be: What will be visible within the frame, and what will be hidden outside of it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine a picture zoomed in on a six-year-old boy holding a cookie in both hands and smiling. Heart-warming, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now let’s alter where we draw the edge of that image: Let’s include his angry mother, holding an empty cookie jar behind him and shouting. This added context hasn’t changed the picture of the boy. His lips make the same shape, but where it previously looked like joy at being given a treat, now it seems like naughty mirth at having stolen one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the analogy that persuasion experts had in mind when they named framing: the ability to shift the meaning of a thing by altering what else is presented alongside it.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Marketing example: Framing beef<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
An old study <\/span> showed people beef described as either “75% lean”, or as “25% fat”. These two labels are exact logical equivalents; Meat that is “75% lean” must, by definition, be 25% fat. But, logic be darned, people perceived the 75%, lean one as tasting better. They also rated it as less greasy and higher in quality. This gap was widest when people only looked at the two packages and guessed how they would taste, but persisted even when they were allowed to eat a sample of each#up.<\/p>\n\n\n
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#down. Which makes sense given what we learned about perception: The label will have given them a top-down expectation that they had to assimilate with bottom-up information coming from the tastebuds in their mouth<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
While “75% lean” and “25% fat” may be logically equivalent labels, they prompt different psychological frames in our working memory. The “75% lean” frame focuses on the portion made of protein and other nutrients. When we imagine beef in this frame, our attention is drawn to its firm feel and healthy nutritional value#up. In contrast, the “25% fat” frame focuses our mind towards energy-dense sticky grease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plan for the rest of this page…<\/h3>\n\n\n
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#down. With all due apologies to the vegans and vegetarians in our midst<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
Framing is not a complicated idea. What can be trickier is the raw number of different types of places and ways that it can show up. It is easy to miss if you are only used to it from one or two contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We’re going to talk about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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  1. How models we’ve already covered help explain why framing can be persuasive\n