Framing effect
Etymology
Documented by Tversky and Kahneman, notably in their 1981 "Asian disease problem," where identical outcomes described as lives saved versus lives lost flipped people’s choices. "Frame" is borrowed from the picture frame or window — the boundary that decides what you notice — and applied to the verbal packaging of a choice.
noun · /FRAY-ming ih-FEKT/
The tendency to reach different decisions about the same facts depending on how those facts are worded or presented.
What it names
It explains why "90% fat-free" outsells "10% fat," and why the same policy can win or lose support based purely on phrasing.
Example
Support collapsed once the same fee was framed as a penalty rather than a lost discount — a textbook framing effect.
Related idea
The anchoring effect pulls a numeric estimate toward a reference point; framing shifts a decision by changing the description, not the number.