Framing

Language that reflects and evokes your worldview—how your positions relate to each other.

Frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world, and consequently, our goals, actions and how we judge outcomes.

A frame allows you only to accept facts that fit within it. Frames are often expressed in terms of metaphors, and if you use the language of the frame ("tax relief," "permission slip from the United Nations," "no child left behind," partial-birth abortion"), you reinforce it—even when you try to negate it.

"When you think you lack words, what you really lack are ideas. Ideas come in the form of frames. When the frames are there, the words come readily... A conservative on TV uses two words, like tax relief. And the progressive has to go into a paragraph-long discussion of his own view. The conservative can appeal to an established frame, that taxation is an affliction or burden, which allows for the two-word phrase, tax relief. But there is not established frame on the other side. You can talk about it, but it takes some doing because there is no established frame, no fixed idea already out there."
—Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate by George Lakoff

Source: Cognitive science, especially in the work of George Lakoff. See Rockridge Institute

Related term: Family values, strict father model, nurturant parent model