Framing influences treatment preferences

Two groups of volunteers, one composed of healthy individuals, the other of cancer patients, were asked to choose between two treament options. The first treatment option was toxic, while the secon was non-toxic, but less effective than the toxic option. The decision was framed in one of three ways: probability of living, probability of dying, probability of living and dying. Results showed that when the probability of living was below 50%, and when the decision was framed as a probability of dying, participants were less likely to choose the toxic treatment and seemed to be more concerned with the quality of life, rather than how much longer they were going to live.