You are the mayor of a city.You have received word of an imminent attack that has the potential to destroy the entire town.Your best architect builds a shelter,but he cannot gather enough supplies.He tells you that the shelter cannot accommodate 600 of the town's 800 citizens.However,if you allow all 800 citizens into the shelter,there is a one-fourth probability that nobody will die,but a three-fourths probability that the supplies will run out and everyone will die.You decide to hold an emergency town meeting to have the townspeople vote on what to do.Based on what you know about framing effects,how should they vote?
A) They will vote to shelter 200 of the 800 citizens.
B) They will vote to shelter all 800 citizens.
C) The options are mathematically equivalent;both options will be voted for equally.
D) Framing effects will not influence their vote.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario illustrates the framing effect, where people's decisions are influenced by how options are presented. In this case, framing the options as "shelter 600 but everyone may die" versus "shelter everyone but there is a chance nobody will die" can have a significant impact on people's decisions. Since the probability of a successful outcome is higher when all 800 citizens are sheltered, people are likely to vote in favor of sheltering everyone. Therefore, the best choice is to shelter all 800 citizens, as the probability of survival is higher with this option.

You Are the Mayor of a City