---
slug: default_frame_projection
name: Default Frame Projection
one_liner: "An observer's own frame operates as the unmarked default against which all others register as marked deviations to be explained, evaluated, or corrected."
type: prime
schema_version: 2
status: density_v2_draft
categories: [cognitive, social, epistemic]
origin_domain: anthropology_and_social_cognition
alternate_origin_domains: [linguistics, sociology_of_knowledge, organizational_theory]
aliases: [unmarked_default_frame_bias, home_frame_as_baseline, own_frame_neutrality_illusion, self_as_norm]
related: []
solution_archetypes: []
review_flags:
- "OPERATOR-DERIVED (op-05 generalization) — the proposed GENUS of `ethnocentrism` (lift: strip the culture frame, keeping the bare pattern of an observer's own frame operating as the unmarked default and all others read as marked deviations). Discovered in the op-05 framed-stratum sweep 2026-07-03. Tier A candidate. 2-input convergence (ethnocentrism + presentism both route to this genus). Markedness-overlap flag: verify against any existing marked/unmarked or default-bias prime. STATUS: HOLD pending owner keep/cut."
- "Created 2026-07-03; STUB ONLY (frontmatter + Core Idea + Notes). SI/SF/similarity are PROPOSER ESTIMATES pending triangulation. Body sections (Structural Signature onward) NOT written."
- "Phase-C action: re-similarity-check vs `ethnocentrism`, `presentism`, and the named nearest primes; confirm it is a genuine genus (covers the inputs AND the named siblings) and not a domain instance or a restatement of the input; draw subsumption edges input→candidate + sibling edges at incorporation; sync one_liner to a v1 draft per CLAUDE.md before merge."
substrate_independence:
  composite_substrate_independence: 4
  domain_breadth: 4
  structural_abstraction: 4
  transfer_evidence: 4
  reasoning: 'The bare structure — one frame among many is treated as the zero point, so it is perceived as neutral/unmarked and never itself explained, while every other frame is perceived as a marked departure requiring explanation or correction — is a clean asymmetry over a space of frames, closely related to the linguistic notion of markedness. It recurs across culture (ethnocentrism), time (presentism, judging the past by present norms), dialect (native speakers hearing others as "accented" and themselves as unaccented), disciplines (treating one''s own methodology as rigorous and others as soft), and organizations (treating internal process as best practice). The pattern is about the frame/observer relation, not about any particular content, so structural abstraction and domain breadth are high and transfer is well-attested across at least four unlike substrates; convergence from two independent inputs (ethnocentrism and presentism) is corroborating evidence of a real genus.'
similarity_to_nearest_existing_prime:
  slug: ethnocentrism
  similarity: 0.66
structural_framed:
  label: structural
  aggregate: 0.34
  criteria: {vocab_travels: 0.3, evaluative_weight: 0.4, institutional_origin: 0.3, human_practice_bound: 0.4, import_vs_recognize: 0.3}
  rationale: 'Once the culture frame is stripped, the core is a structural asymmetry — own frame as unmarked baseline, others as marked deviations — very close to markedness in linguistics, which travels across time, dialect, discipline, and organization. It carries some evaluative weight (the default frame is implicitly privileged) which keeps evaluative_weight off the floor, but it is recognized as a bare structure rather than imported as a cultural doctrine. On balance it reads structural.'
phase_b_passes_completed: []
---
# Default Frame Projection

## Core Idea

Default frame projection is the cognitive-structural condition in which *an observer's own frame operates as the unmarked default, so it is perceived as neutral and never itself explained, while every other frame registers as a marked deviation to be explained, evaluated, or corrected.* The genus is reached from the input `ethnocentrism` by stripping the one constraint that ties that prime to a domain — the specifically *cultural* frame (one's own enculturated category system, value ordering, and norms). What remains once "culture" is lifted out is a bare asymmetry over a space of frames: whichever frame the observer occupies is silently promoted to the zero point, becomes invisible as a frame at all, and turns all rivals into marked departures from it.

The load-bearing anatomy has three parts. First, a *home frame* — the observer's own category system, standard, or baseline. Second, an *asymmetry of markedness* — the home frame is treated as unmarked (neutral, natural, the way things simply are) and therefore exempt from the demand for justification, while alternative frames are treated as marked (deviant, accented, foreign) and made to bear the explanatory burden. Third, the *invisibility of the default*: because the home frame is unmarked, the observer does not experience it as *a* frame at all, so the projection runs undetected — the observer believes they are seeing neutrally rather than from a position. The characteristic payoff is cognitive economy and coordination: a shared default frame lets a group operate without renegotiating premises, and treating one's own frame as baseline is the frictionless move. The characteristic cost/failure is a systematic distortion — the observer cannot see their own frame's contingency, misreads difference as deficiency, imposes a false universality, and asymmetrically taxes others to justify what they themselves never have to.

Read structurally rather than as a cultural bias, the same projection recurs across unlike substrates. In *dialect* a native speaker hears their own speech as "unaccented" and everyone else as having an accent — the home phonology made the silent baseline. In *disciplines* a field treats its own methodology as "rigorous science" and neighboring fields as "soft" — the home method made the unmarked standard of rigor. In *organizations* a company treats its internal process as "best practice" and vendors' or partners' processes as deficient — the home workflow made the default against which others are scored. And across *time*, presentism treats present-day norms as the neutral standard by which the past is judged deviant. These are not the same bias; they share the skeleton — a home frame promoted to unmarked default, all others read as marked deviations, and the default's own contingency rendered invisible.

## Notes

**Provenance.** Produced by operator 05 (generalization / lift) as the proposed genus of `ethnocentrism`, lifting away the culture frame to leave the bare unmarked-default-frame pattern (the operator's working label was `unmarked_default_frame_bias`, found absent). Surfaced in the op-05 framed-stratum sweep on 2026-07-03. Notably this genus was reached by **2-input convergence**: both `ethnocentrism` (culture) and `presentism` (time) route to it, which is corroborating evidence that it is a real genus rather than a one-off coinage. It claimed the siblings *native-dialect-as-unaccented*, *own-discipline-as-rigorous-science*, and *own-process-as-best-practice*. Manifest tier: A.

**For owner evaluation (keep/cut).** The case FOR is fairly strong: the pattern is a clean structural asymmetry (closely related to linguistic markedness), it reaches well past culture, the four named realizations are unlike, and — most tellingly — it was independently reached from two different framed inputs (ethnocentrism and presentism), which is the convergence signal that distinguishes a genuine genus from a sonnet coinage tailored to one input. The corpus has the cultural species (`ethnocentrism`) and the temporal species (`presentism`) but not the genus. The RISKS to weigh: (1) **markedness-overlap flag** — the candidate is close to the general linguistic/structural notion of *markedness* (unmarked vs. marked members of a category); if the corpus has or should have a `markedness` prime, default-frame-projection may be a special case of it (frames specifically, and specifically the *self*-as-default) rather than a prime in its own right. Kurt should draw that boundary deliberately: is this "markedness applied to frames" or a distinct self-as-baseline structure? (2) **Collapse into `ethnocentrism`** — confirm the candidate covers the dialect/discipline/organization siblings, not just culture. (3) It is A-tier with convergence support, not a bare coinage, so keep-rate expectation is moderate-to-high. Sharp keep/cut question: is *default frame projection* distinct from a general `markedness` prime, and does the self-as-unmarked-observer emphasis earn it separate status?

**At incorporation.** Re-run similarity against `ethnocentrism` and `presentism` (confirm the candidate subsumes both) and — critically — against any `markedness`, default-bias, or egocentric/anchoring prime to resolve the overlap flag. Draw subsumption edges `ethnocentrism` → `default_frame_projection` and `presentism` → `default_frame_projection`, plus sibling edges to the dialect, discipline, and organization instances as drafted. If a `markedness` genus exists or is created, flag the missing edge and decide the parent/child direction. Write a v1 draft and sync the one_liner across v1 and v2 per CLAUDE.md before merge.
