18 — Decision Traps

Framing Effect#

◐ Behavioral
◆ The PatternDecisions change based on how information is presented.

The framing effect (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981) — identical information presented differently leads to different decisions.

Gain frame: "This trade has a 70% success rate" → people take it
Loss frame: "This trade has a 30% failure rate" → people avoid it

Same fact, different emotions, different decisions.

In investing: "stock is 20% off its highs" (bargain frame) vs. "stock fell 20%" (danger frame). Reframing a situation always changes your emotional response — be aware of which frame you're in.

Pattern bridge: How information is presented changes the decision — the same data, different conclusions. In statistics, mean vs. median can frame the same dataset differently.
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