Suppose 600 Cancer Patients Have Identical Diagnoses

question 66

Multiple Choice

Suppose 600 cancer patients have identical diagnoses.The patients are separated into two groups of 300 and asked the following questions regarding a potentially beneficial radiation therapy treatment.
The first group was given the following statement and then asked the following question: "Statistically,950 out of every 1,000 cancer patients survive more than two years following the radiation treatment.Would you be willing to undergo the radiation treatment?"
The second group was given the following statement and then asked the following question: "Statistically,50 out of every 1,000 cancer patients die within the two years following the radiation treatment.Would you be willing to undergo the radiation treatment?"
Suppose that 78 percent of the patients in the first group answered yes and that 31 percent of the patients in the second group answered yes.Because the first statement that was given to both groups essentially states the same statistical fact in a different way,the significant difference in the answers recorded for each group is likely an example of a ________ effect in decision-making.

• A) placebo
• B) Taylorian
• C) utilitarian
• D) wording
• E) framing

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Definitions:

Classical Conditioning

A method of instruction that involves the repeated combination of two stimuli, resulting in a behavior that, while initially induced by the second stimulus, is eventually induced by the first stimulus alone.

Punishment

A consequence applied to an individual or animal in response to an undesirable behavior, with the intent of decreasing or eliminating that behavior.

Instinctive Drift

Tendency for an animal’s behavior to revert to genetically controlled patterns.

Genetic Blueprint

A metaphor for the complete set of genes that an organism inherited, which determines its biological characteristics and development.