When something bad like an accident happens, most people freeze and wait for someone else to do something (bystander effect). They wait for the right person to appear and to act so that he can create context and give commands, not realizing that they themselves are the right person in that situation. People with weak frame are afraid of being judged by others and refrain from doing anything out of fear of making mistakes, especially in stressful situations. They freeze and don’t want to share their context.
A guy with strong frame acts and by acting he lets the bystanders enter his reality (e.g. “Call 911!”) as if it were the most normal and only logical thing to do in that situation, which it literally is.
Whenever a passive framer enters a room full of people, he might feel uncomfortable about being judged, feeling their looks on his skin, observing everyone in his surroundings constantly. He shuts down any display of his interpretation of reality, out of fear to be judged.
He compares himself to everyone in the room. He is afraid of making mistakes and by this makes the biggest mistake of them all. He passively waits for someone else to make the first step, to crack a joke, make a comment about the weather or do something else to interrupt the awkwardness.
Likewise, the passive framer, out of fear that his unique perspective, preferences and thus his context is somehow flawed, autistically subscribes to external contexts.
He listens only to what his peers listen to, likes only the latest movies celebrated by critics and the public, dresses up in a boring way and casually like everybody else, buys the latest iPhones, Juul, AirPods or Herschel backpacks, posts on Facebook, uses Snapchat and Instagram, subscribes to mainstream opinions regarding politics or religion just because this what is expected of someone in this day and age.
The active framer, by contrast, enters a room full of people and lets his interpretation of reality flow outward. He doesn’t feel the need to compare himself to other people, he doesn’t feel the looks of whoever looks at him (well, maybe if it is in his own interest to compare himself to others or if it is relevant to know who looks at him).
He doesn’t really feel the awkwardness of the room since this would mean he passively subscribes to the context of other people.