Project SherlockEst. Knowledge

Paper

1981

The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice

Amos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman

Shows that describing an identical choice in terms of gains versus losses reliably reverses which option people prefer, undermining the assumption that preferences are independent of how options are worded.

Before you start

FreeAdvancedlink checked 17 Sept 2026

Read these first

Not a difficulty warning — a route. These are in the library too.

Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under RiskDaniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 1979People evaluate outcomes as gains and losses from a reference point, which breaks expected utility theory in predictable ways.

If this is the wrong level

Too hard? Start hereAre We in Control of Our Own Decisions?Dan Ariely (TED), 2008Argues human decisions are irrational in ways that are systematic and predictable rather than random, using a run of choice experiments to show the pattern repeats across contexts.

Groundwork for

Works in the library that name this one as a prerequisite.

Libertarian PaternalismRichard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein, 2003Argues that because some default option always has to be set, choosing the one that helps people while leaving every alternative open is a form of paternalism that costs nobody their freedom to opt out.

Filed under Behavioural Economics in Economics.