The Difference Between Framing and Reframing

Key points

Framing is the way information is presented, worded, emphasized, or contextualized.

It’s mostly a product of the autopilot brain, filtered through biases and habits.

We must discern whether our automatic framing is truthful, beneficial, or harmful.

Reframing alters the way we think and talk about something.

Framing is a useful concept with an unfortunate name. In its psychological use, framing is the way information is presented, worded, emphasized, or contextualized. It's mostly a product of the autopilot brain, filtered through biases and habits. The name is unfortunate because framing a painting doesn’t make the painting in the way that framing cognition , language, and behavior make meaning.

Framing seems to be a function of how the brain organizes and delimits inf