A framing effect is demonstrated by constructing two transparently equivalent versions of a given problem, which nevertheless yield predictably different choices. The standard example of a framing problem, which was developed quite early, is the 'lives saved, lives lost' question, which offers a choice between two public-health programs proposed to deal with an epidemic that is threatening 600 lives: one program will save 200 lives, the other has a 1/3 chance of saving all 600 lives and a 2/3 chance of saving none. In this version, people prefer the program that will save 200 lives for sure. In the second version, one program will result in 400 deaths, the other has a 2/3 chance of 600 deaths and a 1/3 chance of no deaths. In this formulation most people prefer the gamble. If the same respondents are given the two problems on separate occasions, many give incompatible responses. When confronted with their inconsistency, people are quite embarrassed. They are also quite helpless to resolve the inconsistency, because there are no moral intuitions to guide a choice between different sizes of a surviving population.

"Such irrational reversal in choice preference, however, was eliminated when the same life-death problem was described in a more ecologically valid small-group (6 or 60 people) or family context. That is, the outcome-framing effect disappeared when the sizes of the hypothetical patient groups were in the range of those that would have characterized hunter-gatherer groups."

Alfred Tennyson:
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

I left you by the house of fun
I don't know why, I didn't come.

It's the French paradox redux: Why don't the French get as fat as Americans, considering all the baguettes, wine, cheese, pate and pastries they eat? Because they use internal cues – such as no longer feeling hungry – to stop eating, reports a new Cornell study. Americans, on the other hand, tend to use external cues – such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/0802151...

France Females 34.7
France Males 45.6

Israel Females 57.5
Israel Males 57.2

United States Females 72.6
United States Males 75.6

Somalia Females 21.1
Somalia Males 10.6