Framing in Noisy Informational Environments

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Principal investigator:

Jason Coronel

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Email: jcorone2@illinois.edu

Homepage: http://beckman.illinois.edu/directory/person/jcorone2


Sample size: 2082

Field period: 10/13/2011-08/07/2012

Hypotheses
Central hypothesis: the inclusion of stories unrelated to the framing treatment will reduce if not eliminate the framing effect, unless the framing treatment comes first or last.

Experimental Manipulations
Treatment frame embedded in either a "noisy" (condition contains other semantically unrelated news stories) or non-noisy (treatment frame by itself) condition.
Within the noisy condition, treatment frame presented in the first, middle, or last position.

Outcomes
Two outcome measures:
(1) level of support/opposition for the Patriot Act (issue of interest)
(2) level of certainty in one's support/opposition for the Patriot Act

Summary of Results
There were no differences in the outcome measures between the control frame and the treatment frame in the non-noisy condition.
There were no differences in the outcome measures between the treatment frame and the control frame in the noisy condition.