Framing & Preference Construction

Primes about how the presentation of a problem or choice shapes judgment: framing effects (anchoring, reference-point dependence, context-dependent preference, reframing), and the gap between stated and revealed preference in constructing and reporting value (stated preference, revealed preference, thick description).

14 primes in this family — primes that sit near one another in abstraction space (k-means over structural-signature embeddings). Each is shown with its short description.

• Anchoring — Overweight initial info.
• Context-Dependent Preference — Keep the focal options fixed while changing an unchosen comparator, menu, or evaluation procedure, and the ordering among those focal options can change because value is constructed relative to that context.
• Frame Change — Replace the organizing frame applied to a substantially preserved referent, map or bridge the old and new assignments, and establish the new frame as operative so coordinates, meanings, or responses are systematically re-read.
• Framing — Presentation shapes perception.
• Futures Literacy — Capacity to think about futures.
• Parsimony (Occam's Razor) — Prefer simplicity.
• Problem Framing — Construct the boundary and representation of a problem before solving it, making explicit which actors, variables, causal relations, constraints, success criteria, and action horizon are inside the question and which are excluded.
• Reference-Point Dependence — Evaluate an outcome by its signed change from a movable reference state rather than by its absolute level, so relocating the reference can reverse whether the same outcome is experienced as a gain, loss, improvement, or deterioration.
• Reframing — Hold an underlying situation, artifact, or event fixed while replacing the interpretive frame applied to it, so unchanged material acquires different meaning, salience, evaluation, or action implications.
• Revealed Preference — Infer latent value from observed choices rather than stated reports.
• Stated Preference — Infer an agent's valuation from a solicited report rather than an enacted choice, gaining access to hypothetical or unchosen alternatives at the cost of a cheap, channel-shaped signal.
• Stated–Revealed Preference Gap — A reported preference and behavior under a real choice opportunity systematically diverge, so the mismatch must be analyzed as two differently distorted access channels rather than automatically treating either as the agent's true valuation.
• Thick Description — Record a phenomenon together with the surrounding context that makes its meaning recoverable, not just the bare surface event.
• Visioning — Define aspirational future states.