Everybody makes decisions whether they are trivial or important, affecting ones own life or the lives of others. This area of study has generated much research as how we make decisions has very important mundane implications. A study by Armstrong et al. (2002) showed how just the presentation of data can affect which treatment is chosen for hospital patients. 451 individuals were shown either a survival curve for a hypothetical treatment, a mortality curve or both curves together. Even though the curves showed the same information, participants with survival curves or both tended to show a preference to undergo the treatment. Other research into this area has identified several characteristics of decision making that each have an effect on the final choice. Above all these seem to be heuristics or short cuts that usually allow us to save time and co
Khanemann and Tversky (1984) said that how the question was asked and the background information supplied about it had a very important framing effect and could alter the outcome of decisions. This was shown by an experiment performed by Khanemann and Tversky (1984) in which 307 participants were given a hypothetical situation in which a disease will kill 600 people. Participants were asked to choose one method of treatment out of two possible ones. Treatment A involved saving 200 people in the first condition, and 400 people dying in the second condition (no risk factor). In treatment B probabilities of the numbers saved or not saved were used (a risk factor) in both conditions. They found that when framed with a 'positive' outcome like 200 people were saved 72 per cent of participants chose the no risk option. But when framed with a 'negative' out
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