How do changes in frames result in changes in preferences?

A positive or negative frame can get you to change your reference point for a decision.For example,framing a gas price as a 5-cent surcharge on credit cards leads you to think of the lower cash price as the reference,and the "extra" 5 cents as a loss.Framing the same price as a 5-cent discount for cash leads you to think of the credit card price as the reference,and the 5-cent discount as a gain.Because we tend to treat losses more seriously than gains,we want to avoid the loss,so we avoid the station with the "surcharge."