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Complementary or Competing Frames? The Impact of Economic and Public Health Messages on COVID-19 Attitudes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2022

Emma R. Knapp ,
Brianna A. Smith Open the ORCID record for Brianna A. Smith [Opens in a new window]  and
Matthew P. Motta Open the ORCID record for Matthew P. Motta [Opens in a new window]
Emma R. Knapp
Affiliation:
Ensign, United States Navy, Washington, DC, USA
Brianna A. Smith*
Affiliation:
United States Naval Academy, Department of Political Science, 121 Blake Rd, Annapolis, MD 21402, USA. Twitter: @drbriannasmith
Matthew P. Motta
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA. Twitter: @matt_motta
*
*Corresponding author. Email: smithb@usna.edu
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Abstract

The American reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic is polarized, with conservatives often less willing to engage in risk-mitigation strategies such as mask-wearing and vaccination. COVID-19 narratives are also polarized, as some conservative elites focus on the economy over public health. In this registered report, we test whether combining economic and public health messages can persuade individuals to increase support for COVID-19 risk mitigation. We present preliminary evidence that the combination of messages is complementary, rather than competing or polarizing. When given a message emphasizing COVID-19’s negative health and economic effects in a pilot study, conservatives increased their support for a broad range of risk-mitigation strategies, while liberals maintained high levels of support. A preregistered larger-n follow-up study, however, failed to replicate this effect. While complementary frames may be a promising way to persuade voters on some issues, they may also struggle to overcome high levels of existing polarization.

Keywords

COVID-19framingcomplementary framespublic opinionhealth attitudes
Type
Preregistered Report
Information
Journal of Experimental Political Science , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , Spring 2023 , pp. 21 - 33
Open Practices
Open data Open materials Preregistered
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association

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Footnotes

This article has earned badges for transparent research practices. For details see the Data Availability Statement.

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Supplementary material: Link

Knapp et al. Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/RLJLWT
Link
Supplementary material: File

Knapp et al. supplementary material

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